Seen on the street in Kyiv.

Words of Advice:

"If Something Seems To Be Too Good To Be True, It's Best To Shoot It, Just In Case." -- Fiona Glenanne

“The Mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?” -- The TOFF *

"Foreign Relations Boil Down to Two Things: Talking With People or Killing Them." -- Unknown

“Speed is a poor substitute for accuracy.” -- Real, no-shit, fortune from a fortune cookie

"If you believe that you are talking to G-d, you can justify anything.” — my Dad

"Colt .45s; putting bad guys in the ground since 1873." -- Unknown

"Stay Strapped or Get Clapped." -- probably not Mr. Rogers

"The Dildo of Karma rarely comes lubed." -- Unknown

"Eck!" -- George the Cat

* "TOFF" = Treasonous Orange Fat Fuck, A/K/A Dolt-45,
A/K/A Commandante (or Cadet) Bone Spurs,
A/K/A El Caudillo de Mar-a-Lago, A/K/A the Asset., A/K/A P01135809

Monday, November 28, 2016

Step One in Setting Up an Authoritarian State

Torture people.
Human rights group Amnesty International recently said it had "credible reports" of detainees [in Turkey] being subjected to "beatings and torture, including rape", while Human Rights Watch documented several cases of alleged abuse, facilitated by a state of emergency that extends police detention from four to 30 days and denies access to a lawyer for up to five days.

The BBC uncovered more testimony of alleged abuse, not just from suspected coup-plotters but from others caught up in the purge accused of "support for terrorism", including Kurds and leftists.
It's a fair bet that if the coup had been successful, that many of the people doing and approving of torture would have been themselves subjected to it. Hell, the lower-level torturers may have been torturing for the coup plotters.

None of this should be surprising. When the authorities think they can get away with torturing people, they do. Torture was winked at by the legal system here for a very long time. Only the rise of European fascism began to make torture unappealing to Americans.

But, as we saw fifteen years ago, our government and law enforcement will resort to torture in the blink of an eye. So while people may be horrified at what is going on in Turkey, don't kid yourselves for a picosecond that it can't happen here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never thought it was a real coup. It just put Turkey in play.

dinthebeast said...

It did happen here, in Chicago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Burge
Interesting about Flynn's connection with Turkey, now that he's gonna be NSA and all.

-Doug in Oakland