6 ms·
Venezuela Tries Protesters in Military Court ‘Like We Are in a War’
- pstuart 9y agoOnce the US has its own Reichstag fire I'm sure we'll promptly follow suit.
- jimmywanger 9y agoGodwined in the first comment! Do you have any analysis or insight to add? EDIT: For example, you could argue that this doesn't really matter any more, as Maduro already has de-facto control of the supreme court. Probably a reason this is frowned upon in other societies is that there is a independent judiciary, and military courts ultimately report to the President in the chain of command. But NAZIHITLERNAZIWHARRGARBL.
- copperheart 9y agoWe can only hope.
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoIt wasn't a good thing.
- ue_ 9y agoIt depends; perhaps it will push people to realise that the current system of affairs is broken, and then to push people to a revolution.
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoThe trouble with revolutions is you just end up with a new set of leaders.
- pleboidal 9y agoAnd dead people, and destroyed cities. And purges, and violent warlords siezing power, and military coups. And refugees, and food shortages, and torture chambers, and sabotage. And unprecedented political polarization, and oh maybe disappearances and murders that look like suicides...
- ue_ 9y agoAs much as I would like to achieve Socialism via democratic reform within the system, various figures (Emma Goldman, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, even Engels himself) have noted that working within the existing system ("bourgeois democracy") would not be sufficient to bring about lasting change, as the system itself is built to serve the interests of capital. I am wholly against the things you mentioned, of course, which is why it has been the task of current revolutionaries to plan and organise effectively to minimise these things.
- tim333 9y ago> working within the existing system ("bourgeois democracy") would not be sufficient to bring about lasting change, as the system itself is built to serve the interests of capital. I think the problem is more that when you do vote in socialism as in Venezuela the system sucks. Then it either gets voted out again or you get a violent dictatorship.
- ue_ 9y agoVenezuela is not a Socialist country, and I do not support dictatorships. In line with Marx and Engels, I support the gradual transference of power away from the state (which must be at once transformed into the complete and democratic control of the whole working class upon seizure) and into the hands of the people, as such the state "withers away".
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoWhere has that not fallen into dictatorship? It's a nice idea, the problem is human nature gets in the way.
- tim333 9y agoI'm quite impressed how the US division of powers has held up against the present president so far. It kind of shows how valuable checks and balances can be. It's also been entertaining to watch. I'm looking forward to the next episode after the will the president be able to stop the investigation by firing the FBI head cliffhanger.
- jjeaff 9y agoI just wish this show was more realistic. Everyone knows you can't just fire the head of the FBI for investigating you. It would be way too obvious.
- FrozenVoid 9y agoNational Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, Pub.L. 112–81. This NDAA contains several controversial sections (see article), the chief being §§ 1021-1022, which affirm provisions authorizing the indefinite military detention of civilians, including U.S. citizens, without habeas corpus or due process, contained in the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), Pub.L. 107–40.[6] http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/ndaas_indefinite_detention_without_trial_returns/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/ndaas_indefinite_detention_w...
- gaius 9y ago"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people." -- Commander Adama