[excon]

Hello:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
America ^^

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
America ^^

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
America ^^

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
America ^^

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
AMERICA ^^

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
America ^^

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
America ^^

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
American Republicans ^^

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
America ^^

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
America ^^

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
America ^^

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
America ^^

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
TRUMP ^^

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham; other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
America ^^

Nuff said?

excon

[talaniman]

Nuff said!

[joypulv]

Does Mr. Nuff say anything about bypassing Congress to push any red buttons?

[excon]

Does Mr. Nuff say anything about bypassing Congress to push any red buttons?

Hello joy:

Trump is the commander in chief.. He can launch his missiles ANYTIME he wants to and on ANYBODY he wants to, all by himself.. He needs NO approval from anybody.

Some people will tell you that he needs the Secretary of Defense to sign off BEFORE he shoots.. But, that's ridiculous on its face.. The thinking behind giving the president unilateral authority to launch our nukes, was that he'd ONLY use that authority IF the other side fired FIRST, and their missiles were IN the air.. Under that scenario, the president would only have 9 minutes to decide to launch or not.. Clearly, you couldn't even find the Secretary of Defense in 9 minutes no less get him to the White House, or Mara lago..

Is that nuff?

excon

[tomder55]

Fascism ... government intervention in the economy. progressives

.... through ownership of the means of production, with nominal ownership for politically connected business owners ( Clinton Foundation).

.......no tolerance for opposing political opinions ... see progressive college campuses .

......Identifying an' elite' and convince the populace that they are victims of a vast conspiracy against them , and the key to their happiness is in taking from the 'elite' . progressives .

Fascism ,socialism ,communism ,progressivism are all one face of the same coin ..... suppressing individual freedoms for the collective benefit of the state, and those who control the state . They are at their core, the belief that people are best ruled by those educated enough to rule, because people are not capable of making their own choices.

I remind you that the progressives of the early 20th century were the fascists ahead of the times of Hitler . The Teddy Roosevelt's and HG Well's of that era were the eugenicist ,the visionaries who saw a day when the weak would assimilate or die . Margaret Sanger ,the founder of 'Planned Parenthood ' is still a hero of the progressive left . HG Wells wrote ;

And how will the new republic treat the inferior races? How will it deal with the black? how will it deal with the yellow man? how will it tackle that alleged termite in the civilized woodwork, the Jew? Certainly not as races at all. It will aim to establish, and it will at last, though probably only after a second century has passed, establish a world state with a common language and a common rule. All over the world its roads, its standards, its laws, and its apparatus of control will run. It will, I have said, make the multiplication of those who fall behind a certain standard of social efficiency unpleasant and difficult… The Jew will probably lose much of his particularism, intermarry with Gentiles, and cease to be a physically distinct element in human affairs in a century or so. But much of his moral tradition will, I hope, never die. … And for the rest, those swarms of black, and brown, and dirty-white, and yellow people, who do not come into the new needs of efficiency?
Well, the world is a world, not a charitable institution, and I take it they will have to go.The whole tenor and meaning of the world, as I see it, is that they have to go. So far as they fail to develop sane, vigorous, and distinctive personalities for the great world of the future, it is their portion to die out and disappear.

HG WELLS (Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought (1902)). Wells also wrote that “it is in the sterilization of failures, and not in the selection of successes for breeding, that the possibility of an improvement of the human stock lies.”

The progressive Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in favor of Virginia's eugenics laws in 'Buck v Bell ' that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

[joypulv]

Plenty of scholarly argument about POTUS power to launch, especially given that we haven't declared war since 1941.

Excerpt from PolitiFact:

Georgetown University professor Anthony Arend, whose specialties include international relations and constitutional law of U.S. foreign relations, also cited Article 2 of the Constitution and the president’s power as commander-in-chief. He told us:
"While the precise scope of this power is unclear, a strong argument can be made that the president can use force in short military operations -- especially where there is minimal risk to American lives -- without congressional authorization. Indeed, over the years, Congress has generally acquiesced in such presidential uses of force.
"Because the air strikes were undertaken by cruise missiles that put virtually no American lives at risk and because the strikes lasted only minutes, the president's action would seem to be a lawful use of force under the Constitution. Needless to say, if further military actions were to be undertaken, they could rise to the level of requiring congressional authorization."

Can't really pin this topic down.

[tomder55]

Joy ;yes the inherent powers of the executive were expanded greatly when Congress abdicated their war powers with the adoption of the 'War Powers Act ' of 1973 . They thought they were reigning in the powers of POTUS . Instead they gave POTUS almost unchecked powers to wage war .

[talaniman]

The congress can always assert it's own authority to balance the president any time they decide to grow a pair and do so.

[smoothy]

Funny how when Obama was actually stomping all over the constitution and bill of rights a certain faction never found ANY fault in it.

[talaniman]

Factions don't matter when it comes to constitutionality, nor does opinion, as by law SCOTUS is the final authorized interpreter of the Constitution.

[paraclete]

I think ex nailed it

[tomder55]

No ;the constitution is the final arbiter . Art 6 sec 2 .But early on ,the judiciary seized powers not granted the them in the constitution .

What do the founders and framers think of judicial supremacy ?

“At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous.”

Jefferson

“The Judiciary is beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power.” “In republican government, the legislative authority necessarily predominates.”

Madison

On The judiciary being the final arbiter ,Jefferson wrote :

“The Constitution has erected no such single tribunal, knowing that to whatever hands confided, with the corruptions of time and party, its members would become despots.”

He wrote about the dangers an imperial judiciary would become :

“The germ of dissolution of our federal government is in the constitution of the federal Judiciary; an irresponsible body (for impeachment is scarcely a scare-crow) working like gravity by night and by day, gaining a little today and a little tomorrow, and advancing its noiseless step like a thief, over the field of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped.”

The judiciary has to be reigned in ;and the sooner the better . Since the other branches of the Federal Government don't have the testicular fortitude to do so ,it must come from the states through an Article 5 convention.

[talaniman]

don't have the testicular fortitude to do so

Yep that's what I said. However,

Annotation 2 - Article VI - FindLaw

Task of the Supreme Court Under the Clause: Preemption
In applying the supremacy clause to subjects which have been regulated by Congress, the primary task of the Court is to ascertain whether a challenged state law is compatible with the policy expressed in the federal statute. When Congress legislates with regard to a subject, the extent and nature of the legal consequences of the regulation are federal questions, the answers to which are to be derived from a consideration of the language and policy of the state. If Congress expressly provides for exclusive federal dominion or if it expressly provides for concurrent federal-state jurisdiction, the task of the Court is simplified, though, of course, there may still be doubtful areas in which interpretation will be necessary. Where Congress is silent, however, the Court must itself decide whether the effect of the federal legislation is to oust state jurisdiction

- See more at: Annotation 2 - Article VI - FindLaw

Like I said, individual opinions don't count be they legislature, or founders, final interpretation is the exclusive domain of SCOTUS.

[tomder55]

1. Like I said, individual opinions don't count be they legislature, or founders, final interpretation is the exclusive domain of SCOTUS.

Only because the other branches allow it . There is NOTHING in the constitution that states that premise .The supremacy clause only makes the presumption that Federal law supersedes state laws .