Lest We Forget: The 14 Characteristics of Fascism.

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.

THE FASCISTS ARE COMING - FROM THE LEFT AND FROM THE RIGHT - THE FASCISTS ARE COMING OUT OF HIDING.

The 14 characteristics are:

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.

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, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

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.

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.

Rampant Sexism







The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.







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.







Obsession with National Security







Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.







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.







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.







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 .







Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts







Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.







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.







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.







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.







Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine



Reprinted for Fair Use Only.







This article was based upon the article "The Hallmarks of Fascist Regime" by Skip Stone, at www.hippy.com/php/article-226.html.

Corporatism.

Fascism's theory of economic corporatism involved management of sectors of the economy by government or privately-controlled organizations (corporations). Each trade union or employer corporation would theoretically represent its professional concerns, especially by negotiation of labor contracts and the like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism

IN THE CHILD PROTECTION STATE.

1."Everything in the child protection state".

The Children's Aid Society is supreme and child protection law is all-encompassing, and all within it must conform to the ruling body.

2."Nothing outside the child protection state".

The funding goals of the fascist child protection corporation is to control all children, and have every human submit to the government.

3."Nothing against the child protection state".

Any type of questioning of the child protection protection corporation will not to be tolerated. If you do not see things our way, you are wrong. If you do not agree with or trust the government's lone oversight of child protection and our judgement, you cannot be allowed to have children and taint the minds of the of good citizens.

OPINION. Aug 14, 2018. Hamilton Spectator.

https://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/8816221-editorial-ford-s-attacks-o...

Editorial: Ford’s attacks on the media weaken our democracy.

Ford’s PCs have launched “Ontario News Now,” a social media account on Twitter and Facebook to give their own version of the news and promote their agenda. -

Tijana Martin , The Canadian Press

If there's one thing Doug Ford wants you to believe, it's that he's here "for the people" of Ontario.

That was his slogan in the recent provincial election. It's been his favourite mantra since being sworn in as premier, too.

But unless Ford stops trying to muzzle, obstruct and even ignore the people's messenger — the news media of this province — his fine words will mean nothing.

Whether he's paranoid or simply likes to feel in control, Ford's doing his best to interfere with reporters trying to do their job or, just as troubling, using tax dollars to execute an end run around them and deliver his own, carefully contrived propaganda "for the people."

It's becoming commonplace, for instance, for paid provincial government staffers to drown out reporters' questions at press conferences by applauding loudly.

This happened last Thursday when dozens of government workers stood among reporters and "clapped out" journalists trying to get more information about the government's plans to fight gun violence in Toronto.

The same thing occurred a week earlier when Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod announced changes to the province's welfare program.

And while the Progressive Conservatives' party line seems to be that the staffers are acting on their own, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has complained that a press conference "is supposed to be for the press, not for a group of hangers-on to create a ruckus."

"Clapping out" reporters is far from being a trivial irritation to the province's news media. Nor is it an isolated tactic.

Since Ford became premier, the news media have been limited to asking roughly five questions in total during news conferences. That's significantly less than what the previous Liberal government allowed — and it's unacceptable.

How Doug Ford will make the media better?

By BOB HEPBURNStar Columnist

Fri., Aug. 17, 2018.

Today's letters:

Ford's 'snitch line' should be called out OTTAWA CITIZEN EDITORIAL BOARD: August 25, 2018.

In an interview in Washington last week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford seemed surprised and hurt by the number of lawsuits his government faces.

“I think we have 10 or 11 lawsuits active, unprecedented for a new government to take office, and a lot of the oppositions, they believe they want to rule through the judiciary system,” he said. “We live in a democracy. We just had an election. June 7. They voted us in. And we’re going to fulfill the mandate that was given to us. It’s in the Constitution.”

I hope Ford is smarter than he looks but I am afraid he is not, and that could cost Ontarians piles and piles of money.

Ford’s party did win an election on June 7, but that didn’t make the province’s complicated business arrangements all disappear, and although Ford seems to think he can undo contracts by fiat, unelected judges will have the final say, and they don’t care what nonsense he spouted in an election campaign.

MORE TO READ HERE

This investigative report reveals that:

Doug Ford, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s brother, sold hashish for several years in the 1980s.

Another brother, Randy, was also involved in the drug trade and was once charged in relation to a drug-related kidnapping.

Their sister, Kathy, has been the victim of drug-related gun violence.

In the 1980s, anyone wanting to buy hashish had to know where to go. And in central Etobicoke, the wealthy Toronto suburb where Mayor Rob Ford grew up, one of those places was James Gardens. In the evening, the sports cars often wound along Edenbridge Drive, past the gated homes and the lawn-bowling pitches, until they reached the U-shaped parking lot. By nightfall, the public park was a hash drive-thru. One former street dealer, whom we will call "Justin," described the scene as "an assembly line."

There were usually a number of dealers to choose from, some of them supplied by a mainstay at James Gardens – a young man with the hulk-like frame and mop of bright blond hair: Doug Ford. "Most people didn't approach Doug looking for product. You went to the guys that he supplied. Because if Doug didn't know you and trust you, he wouldn't even roll down his window," Justin said.

Today, Mr. Ford is a member of Toronto's city council – and no ordinary councillor. First elected in 2010 as his brother was swept into the mayor's office, he has emerged as a truly powerful figure at City Hall –– trying to overhaul plans for Toronto's waterfront less than a year after arriving. He also has higher aspirations, and has said he wants to follow in the footsteps of his father, Doug Ford Sr., by running in the next provincial election as a Conservative.

Meanwhile, he serves as his brother's de facto spokesman. As Toronto is gripped by allegations that its mayor was captured on a homemade video smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and his office descends into disarray – his chief of staff was fired on Thursday – Doug Ford has been the only person to mount a spirited public defence of his largely silent sibling. On Friday, after the Mayor finally made a statement about the accusation, he was the one who fielded questions from the press.

Well before the events of the past week, The Globe and Mail began to research the Ford brothers in an effort to chronicle their lives before rising to prominence in Canada's largest city. Over the past 18 months, it has sought out and interviewed dozens of people who knew them in their formative years.

What has emerged is a portrait of a family once deeply immersed in the illegal drug scene. All three of the mayor's older siblings – brother Randy, 51, and sister Kathy, 52, as well as Doug, 48 – have had ties to drug traffickers.

Ten people who grew up with Doug Ford – a group that includes two former hashish suppliers, three street-level drug dealers and a number of casual users of hash – have described in a series of interviews how for several years Mr. Ford was a go-to dealer of hash. These sources had varying degrees of knowledge of his activities: Some said they purchased hash directly from him, some said they supplied him, while others said they observed him handling large quantities of the drug.

The events they described took place years ago, but as mayor, Rob Ford has surrounded himself with people from his past. Most recently he hired someone for his office whose long history with the Fords, the sources said, includes selling hashish with the mayor's brother.

The Globe wrote to Doug Ford outlining what the sources said about him, and received a response from Gavin Tighe, his lawyer, who said the allegations were false. "Your references to unnamed alleged sources of information represent the height of irresponsible and unprofessional journalism given the gravely serious and specious allegations of substantial criminal conduct."

MORE TO READ HERE

If things were bad under the free spending liberals how will cutting funding for social services make things better?

What caused the Russian Revolution of 1917?

By 1917 the bond between the tsar and most of the Russian people had been broken. Governmental corruption and inefficiency were rampant. The tsar’s reactionary policies, including the occasional dissolution of the Duma, or Russian parliament, the chief fruit of the 1905 revolution, had spread dissatisfaction even to moderate elements. The Russian Empire’s many ethnic minorities grew increasingly restive under Russian domination

The French Revolution.

The French Revolution had general causes common to all the revolutions of the West at the end of the 18th century and particular causes that explain why it was by far the most violent and the most universally significant of these revolutions.

Access to information relies on good record keeping and information management practices. When records are not created or appropriately preserved to document decisions, rights under the Act are denied. This, in turn, prevents accountability and transparency.

No federal statute or regulation sets out a comprehensive and enforceable legal duty to create and preserve records documenting decision-making processes, procedures or transactions. Without such a duty, there is a risk that not all information related to the decision-making process is being recorded or appropriately preserved in an institution’s information holdings.

Commissioner Cavoukian calls on government to preserve Freedom and Liberty. June 17, 2014

Former Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian wrote:

“I am disheartened by the complete lack of action to ensure transparency and accountability by these organizations that received significant public funding. As part of the modernization of the Acts, I call on the government to finally address this glaring omission and ensure that Children’s Aid Societies are added to the list of institutions covered.”

The only oversight for the province’s children’s aid agencies comes from Ontario’s Ministry of Children and Youth Services.

"As the law stands now clients of the Ontario Children's Aid Society under Wynne's liberals are routinely denied a timely (often heavily censored) file disclosure before the court begins making decisions and the clients can not request files/disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act nor can censored information reviewed by the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario or the federal counter-part."

In her 2004 annual report, which was released on June 22, 2005, the Commissioner called for amendments that would bring virtually all organizations that are primarily funded by government dollars under FOI for the purposes of transparency and accountability: This would include the various children’s aid agencies in the Province of Ontario. Many parents and families complain about how difficult it is, if not impossible, to obtain information from children’s aid agencies. Many citizens complain that CAS agencies appear to operate under a veil of secrecy. Unlicensed and untrained CAS workers are making decisions which are literally destroying families, yet there is little or no accountability for their actions short of a lawsuit after the damage to the child or children has already been done.

“Hundreds of organizations that are recipients of large transfer payments from the government are not subject to the provincial or municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Acts,” said the Commissioner, “which means they are not subject to public scrutiny.” Among the examples she cites are hospitals and Children’s Aid Societies. “Openness and transparency of all publicly funded bodies is essential – they should be publicly accountable.”

In her annual report for 2013 released on June 17 there is just one paragraph on children's aid on page 12:

In my 2004, 2009, and 2012 Annual Reports I recommended that Children’s Aid Societies, which provide services for some of our most vulnerable citizens – children and youth in government care, be brought under FIPPA. I am disheartened by the complete lack of action to ensure transparency and accountability by these organizations that received significant public funding. As part of the modernization of the Acts, I call on the government to finally address this glaring omission and ensure that Children’s Aid Societies are added to the list of institutions covered.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner is appointed by and reports to the Ontario Legislative Assembly, and is independent of the government of the day. The Commissioner's mandate includes overseeing the access and privacy provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and the Personal Health Information Protection Act, and commenting on other access and privacy issues.

DEFINITION of 'Protected Cell Company (PCC)

The basic principle behind cell organization is simple: By dividing the greater organization into many multi-person groups and compartmentalizing and concealing information inside each cell as needed, the greater organization is more likely to survive unchanged if one of its components is compromised and as such, they are remarkably difficult to penetrate and hold accountable in the same way the mafia families or terrorist organizations are.

A corporate structure in which a single legal entity is comprised of a core and several cells that have separate assets and liabilities. The protected cell company, or PCC, has a similar design to a hub and spoke, with the central core organization linked to individual cells. Each cell is independent of each other and of the company’s core, but the entire unit is still a single legal entity.

BREAKING DOWN 'Protected Cell Company (PCC)

A protected cell company operates with two distinct groups: a single core company and an unlimited number of cells. It is governed by a single board of directors, which is responsible for the management of the PCC as a whole. Each cell is managed by a committee or similar group, with authority to the committee being granted by the PCC board of directors. A PCC files a single annual return to regulators, though business and operational plans of each cell may still require individual review and approval by regulators.

Cells within the PCC are formed under the authority of the board of directors, who are typically able to create new cells as business needs arise. The articles of incorporation provide the guidelines that the directors must follow.

The current hierarchical corporate structures that dominate our economies have been in place for over 200 years and were notably supported and defined by Max Weber during the 1800s. Even though Weber was considered a champion of bureaucracy, he understood and articulated the dangers of bureaucratic organisations as stifling, impersonal, formal, protectionist and a threat to individual freedom, equality and cultural vitality.

CAS actions are shrouded in secrecy, and media investigations are chilled by CAS lawyers, who claim to be protecting the privacy rights of all involved.

With virtually no checks and balances, case workers have “as much power as God,” in the words of one former social worker. And they use it according to their diverse subjective impulses.

Nancy Simone, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local representing 275 workers at the Catholic Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, argues child protection workers already have levels of oversight that include workplace supervisors, family court judges, coroners’ inquests and annual case audits by the ministry and the union representing child protection workers is firmly opposed to ethical oversight from a professional college, and the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which regulates and funds child protection, is so far staying out of the fight.. Nancy Simone says, “Our work is already regulated to death.”

The effect of provincial policies on struggling families was especially apparent in the late 1990s, when the Conservative government slashed welfare payments and social service funding while at the same time, it introduced in child protection the notion of maltreatment by “omission,” including not having enough food in the home and this after giving the society what amounted to an unlimited funding scheme. The number of children taken into care spiked as did their funding.

“The ministry has been pretty clear with us that advocacy is not part of our mandate,” Goodman said speaking for the society. “It’s not like they’re asking for the (poverty) data. They’re not.” Goodman then when on to suggest the silence suited the government more than the silence suited the society's funding goals.

FORMER ONTARIO MPP FRANK KLEES EXPLAINS "A DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE."

Listen as former MPP Frank Klees explains why the government has the only oversight of the children's aid and why the society shouldn't be regulated by the College of Social Work and why the government won't allow the Ombudsman or the Privacy Commissioner to investigate complaints or any other matters regarding the society..

Frank Klees (born March 6, 1951) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1995 to 2014. He was a cabinet minister in the government of Mike Harris.

Children's Aid Societies Still Running Rogue.

The Bag Man: Expenditure Estimates for the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (2017-18)

A LITTLE RAINY DAY MONEY SQUIRRELED AWAY.

C.A.S. ATTITUDE: WIN CHILD WELFARE CASES AT ALL COSTS $$$

OHRC Child Welfare Ontario: Concerns about risk assessment standards and tools.

HAVE THEY SIMPLY LOST THEIR WAY IN THE RUSH TO DO GOOD

Coroner’s panel calls for overhaul of Ontario child protection system.

Harmful impacts and the widespread use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs in foster, group homes. Dec. 12, 2014.

“There are lots of kids in group homes all over Ontario and they are not doing well — and everybody knows it,” says Kiaras Gharabaghi, a member of a government-appointed panel that examined the residential care system in 2016.

Almost half of children and youth in foster and group home care aged 5 to 17 — 48.6 per cent — are on drugs, such as Ritalin, tranquilizers and anticonvulsants, according to a yearly survey conducted for the provincial government and the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies (OACAS).

At ages 16 and 17, fully 57 per cent are on these medications.

In group homes, the figure is even higher — an average of 64 per cent of children and youth are taking behaviour-altering drugs. For 10- to 15-year-olds, the number is a staggering 74 per cent.

What’s worse is that the number of children prescribed dangerous drugs is on the rise. Doctors seem to prescribe medication without being concerned with the side-effects.

Worldwide, 17 million children, some as young as five years old, are given a variety of different prescription drugs, including psychiatric drugs that are dangerous enough that regulatory agencies in Europe, Australia, and the US have issued warnings on the side effects that include suicidal thoughts and aggressive behavior.

According to Fight For Kids, an organization that “educates parents worldwide on the facts about today’s widespread practice of labeling children mentally ill and drugging them with heavy, mind-altering, psychiatric drugs,” says over 10 million children in the US are prescribed addictive stimulants, antidepressants and other psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs for alleged educational and behavioral problems.