A PICTURE IS WORTH...

A PICTURE IS WORTH...
Gun's don't kill people. People with guns kill people.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"No body could have done a better job than Obama, with the economy he was handed —including me!" —Bill Clinton—

Friday, September 24, 2010

Insanity is...
















I am an independent voter. In the past I have voted for republicans or democrats based on their positions on issues that concern me. Frankly I am worn out by the current state of American politics.

Having said that I love this country deeply and I must make a rational decision on which party will preserve this country's heritage. Therefore I will not be voting for any Republicans for the following reasons:

1. They seem more intent on their own personal political agendas and retaining power than on the welfare of this nation. I am always suspicious of power hungry people. Instead of embracing the new president's offer of working in a bipartisan manner—time and time again—they rejected it and became obstructionist in demeanor and tactics, even when their ideas were incorporated into legislation, hoping for his failure so they could say, "I told you so."

2. The Republicans held a monopoly on power for nearly fourteen years. They were handed a 84 billion dollar surplus* at the end of Bill Clinton's presidency and a fairly stable economy. They squandered it. * http://www.factcheck.org/askfactche /during_the_clinton_administration_was_the_federal.html

3.In American history there has never been a pre-emptive war, yet they chose to start one by lying to the American public about their motives, which had nothing to do with American National Security and WMDs, as they claimed. That war in Iraq has consumed nine years nearly, 4,300 American lives, plus 30,000 casualties who will require care into the foreseeable future, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and nearly a trillion dollars—and counting—that are unfunded, the equivalent of 20,000 dollars pre household. Now we are committed to rebuilding the Iraqi nation while our nations drifts into financial chaos.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/iraq_casualties.htm

4. They cut the revenue of the government by handing the wealthiest among us an unprecedented tax cut while increasing spending on lavish corporate welfare programs. How do you cut taxes in time of war? You cut food assistance to Americans and education programs for future generations. And label those programs as "entitlements" to generate animosity towards people that need them thus creating a underclass who by inference are leeching the life blood of America.

5. The republicans have precipitated and encouraged a bitter, underhanded and fostered a disingenuous political climate in this country from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove, that has Machiavellian undertones. They have rendered the term "loyal opposition", totally meaningless."

6. They have stacked the Supreme Court with hand picked political ideologues who have undermined the Constitution and tilted it to the far right. Their announced aim was to "shrink the government to such an extent that they could drowned it in a bath tub".

7. They preach that government is the problem, forgetting that the founding fathers although suspicious of any government were also aware that left unchecked powerful private interests would trample the individual human rights that they had fought for. Eisenhower, a republican president warned us about the dangers of allowing the military/industrial complex to become too powerful. e.g. Haliburton

8. They ran huge deficits that weakened this country to such an extent that at the very end of their rein they had to call for a bailout of the American Banking system and turned around and blamed the democrats. They left this country in shambles yet they want to take over again and return to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place, their recent "Contract with America" is a prime example of their intentions.

9. Their party has been highjacked by hate mongering far right radicals who are bought and paid for by corporate powers. They have driven out most moderates and have coalesced around fanatical faction calling themselves the Tea Party.

10. They have undermined the sense of Civic Duty that ever American was taught in my generation, that while we don't like paying taxes we do so for the well being of our country.

11. They deny some groups in our society the human rights that our Constitution sets forth as bedrock and cater to the xenophobic tendencies in us. All the while expressing an undying love for the self same document and insisting on its infallibility as the arbiter of the law. Ignoring the fact or not understanding that the Constitution is the document that protects the minority from the tyranny of the majority.

12. They have rewritten American history and twisted it to suite they political agendas, e.g. America was founded as a Christian Nation. I am a Christian and in my reading of the Constitution have found no reasonable attempt by the founders to, in any way to incorporate Christianity as the basis for human rights. Their mention of a creator does not make this a Christian Nation, if anything it implies that the founders were Deists who recognized that a higher power made men free from birth, but there is no absolutely no mention of salvation or redemption which is a fundamental theologic argument that distinguishes Christianity from Deists. They go even further by proclaiming this a Christian Nation and then subvert and deny the fundamental rights of select group that are different. Their ability to reason is therefore in my opinion suspect at least.

13. The republicans no longer speak to the aspiration and dreams of this Nation but appeal to the most negative aspects of human nature that divide us rather than unite us.

Please search your memories and consider what the Republicans have done to this country in the fourteen years they had unchecked power, and ask yourself if you you want more of the same? I for one do not and urge you to vote democratic this election and the next. Send them a message that we reject their negativity and mean spirited pronouncements, tell them that this country is better than their short sighted doom and gloom scenarios and policies of scarcity, that we can recover from their cynical and divisive policies.

Commentary: If insanity is to repeat a failed behavior and expect different results, then in the immortal words of that far right intellectual Sarah Palin—I say—'Thanks but no thanks".

Monday, August 2, 2010

Farewell My Friend—Break on thru to the otherside

A friend and classmate killed himself last week. I just heard about it today. His name was Robert Butler. He was a Viet Nam Vet. He died alone homeless, his life in shambles as he faced criminal charges, alcoholism and as he fought the demons that haunted him from his services nearly 44 years ago.

The last time I saw Bob was on the occasion of another classmates death, Jim Keneko. Jim was a medic who also suffered from PTSD, Jim and I were roommates after he got back from Nam. Bob and Jim were searching for answers to quiet the ghosts of their common past—Jim in alcohol—Bob in an odd mix of manic eastern spiritualism, booze and drugs. Both had been deeply effected by their participation in the war. Jim recounted his first experience in battle—rushing to aid a fallen buddy, he and another solider tried to pick up the mortally wounded soldier and their hands met somewhere in the middle of the man's sticky hot guts—he'd been severed in half. Bob didn't fair any better mentally in Nam and got a discharge when the insanity of war became too much for him to bear. Bob hung around with us until he moved to California where he got heavily involved in the counter culture, transcendental meditation, music and drugs. During that fall of 1965 and winter of 1966 together, we formed a deep friendship.

When Jim passed—Bob and I reunited at Jim's funeral and later at Jim's favorite bar—after closing the bar we spent the entire night at Jim's grave drinking beer and telling stories and celebrating Jim's life. Bob's life was troubled and chaotic to say the least, in some respects I guess Bob—and Jim—really died in Viet Nam 44 years ago, finally—maybe—Bob's found the peace that eluded him on this earth. I love you, you crazy wild eyed bastard. The world is a poorer place since you left.

Bob and I had a favorite song by the Doors—which we'd sang staggering down the streets of Minneapolis one night. He referred to it the last time he wrote on my Wall—Here's to you Bobby.

You know the day destroys the night
Night divides the day
Tried to run
Tried to hide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side, yeah

We chased our pleasures here
Dug our treasures there
But can you still recall
The time we cried
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side

Yeah!
C'mon, yeah

Everybody loves my baby
Everybody loves my baby
She get(s high)
She get(s high)
She get(s high)
She get(s high)

I found an island in your arms
Country in your eyes
Arms that chain
Eyes that lie
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through, oww!
Oh, yeah!

Made the scene
Week to week
Day to day
Hour to hour
The gate is straight
Deep and wide
Break on through to the other side
Break on through to the other side
Break on through
Break on through
Break on through
Break on through
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah


Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Ants—The Rich Man's Burden

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves the much higher compensation."

-- Abraham Lincoln, State of the Union message, 1861



I love Fareed Zakaria's clear eyed view of the world. His interview with, Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein was illuminating. As I watched an obviously brilliant Mr. Blankfein explain with great detail how his deals were structured, it occurred to me that while he is brilliant, that he is also oblivious to the damage that he and others in his rarified class caused. That they devastated the economy with just the seer enormity of the kind of money they were moving around was totally lost on him.

The obvious analogy that came to mind was an elephant stepping on the toes of an ant. The elephant didn't feel a thing. His response what ant? The more he talked the more convinced I became that that much economic power should never be welded by such a small group of people, when their financial brinkmanship can bring ruin to millions of others who are not even aware of the financial games being played.

Over a hundred years ago—a small (r) republican—a President worthy of the name fought against monopolies. He understood—and rightly so—the catastrophic consequences of concentrating that much wealth in the hands of anyone let alone men who are so far removed from the devastating consequences of their financial power. It took 10 years of struggle top wrest the monopolistic power from the hands of the likes of J.P. Morgan.

The proud tradition of republicanism that abolished slavery, fiercely protected individual human rights—laid out in the constitution—has vanished. It has been hijacked by intolerant, self serving, ideologues whose only purpose is to enrich themselves by selling their influence to the highest bidder. They seem to have been subverted by a small radical base that is bent on destroying this nation. Their fanaticism calls to mind the small ardent core of rabid Nazi that led their nation to ruin. They want to "drown the government in a bathtub" as one miscreant stooge put it, so that they can do as they please regardless of the consequences. Thus their mantra to deregulate everything, and privatize everything is bearing fruit, financial collapse, and concentration of wealth in the hands of a few that is unprecedented.

The inevitable drift towards concentrated wealth that has been advocated by the current crop of ideologically driven "Republicans", is a far cry and a 100+ years removed from Roosevelt's resolute steadfast stand against monopolies—that brought about a sea change—that put America on course to build a middle class that made America the envy of the world. They are the true elitist who are so far removed from the majority of decent Americans by their great wealth, they are incapable of empathy. How does one empathize with a few million ants who've been crushed? After all who wants a bunch of ants at a feast for elephants anyway?

Commentary: "The White Man's Burden"—a paternalistic—poem written by Rudyard Kipling that justified imperialism as a duty to civilize inferior races—is, I suspect not far removed from the Rich Man's attitude, that they are somehow superior by virtue of their wealth and position and that the masses of uneducated struggling humans are nothing more than a burden. Why do billionaire owners pay athletes millions while teachers are paid pittance? Why do CEO's of billion dollar banks, who produce nothing of value, earn millions in bonuses even when they bring the entire world to the brink of financial ruin? Who thinks for you? Who votes for you? The benefit of being an ant is sheer numbers. If you're tired of being trampled by elephants bite back. Do your homework—its not hard to find out whose taking money in exchange for their vote. Raise hell with you're representatives that don't represent your views. Vote out the sell outs. Take your country back. Let's rethink the paradigm. After all who carriers a bigger burden than an ant?

Monday, May 10, 2010

The Truth About New American Tea Party














"On Monday morning, the 29th of November, 1773, a handbill was posted all over Boston, containing the following words: "Friends! Brethren! Countrymen!--That worst of plagues, the detested tea, shipped for this port by the East India Company, is now arrived in the harbor."

The event that triggered the Boston Tea Party, and that has been reduced a catch phrase—"No taxation without representation"—was at its heart the rejection of the British manipulation of the markets in favor of the East India Company by means of tax cuts for the only global corporation of that era.

The New Tea Party Patriots have taken a distant event and twisted its meaning to imply that it was all about eliminating taxes, which is a false conclusion. If their premise is true it would have been written into the Constitution NO TAXATION (period). How preposterous to presume that any government can operate without revenue. Yet that is what the leaders of The New Tea Party would have you believe. What the founders fought for was REPRESENTATION in the affairs that concerned them in their daily lives. What is truly ironic or moronic about the "tea baggers" adoption of that particular historical event is that it was triggered by a huge tax cut for the East India Trading Company who at the time was on the verge of bankruptcy, the colonist considered it an unfair tax cut that would put smaller independent traders out of business.

This is a reprint of an article by Mary Bell Lockhart written for OpEdNews.com

For OpEdNews: Mary Bell Lockhart - Writer

Does the ultra-right carry water for the ultra-rich?

To paraphrase the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz, "How 'bout a little truth, scare mongers?"

In my last article, I debunked the myth that our tax dollars are taken against our will and given to lazy people who refuse to work. Nevertheless, up popped a letter repeating that we're "immorally taxed against our will," which apparently has origins in libertarian doctrine. A corollary myth is that the only true purpose for the government is to "protect our freedoms" presumably meaning the military and police. These are poor readings of American history and a distortion of the Constitution and the government it established. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion here, but we're not entitled to invent facts.

For American revolutionaries, taxation was an issue, but it was not, as implied by current "tea partiers," an issue of high taxes. For the colonists, the issue was taxation without representation -- paying taxes when they could not elect voting representatives. Other economic issues, which led directly to the Boston Tea Party, were favorable treatment for the British East India Company and restriction on colonial trade with countries other than Britain.

The East India Company was perhaps an early capitalistic, multinational corporation. It was granted monopoly status by Britain and given preferences to supply the only tea colonists were allowed to purchase. So, colonists smuggled in tea from other sources and refused to buy British tea (even though it was cheaper). In 1773, they attempted to send tea back to Britain and, when that failed, dumped it in Boston harbor. There was reaction from Britain, counter-reaction from the colonists, and eventually the Declaration of Independence and war.

After throwing off one government, the Americans turned around and formed -- what? Another government more to their liking. The Preamble to the US Constitution gives the overall mission statement -- the purposes -- for the government. I've covered this in a previous article, but repeat that the mission to "promote the general welfare" includes a large number of activities that are appropriate, constitutional governmental roles.

Saving an economy in free-fall and aiding the least of us in our society -- the sick, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed, the children -- are entirely appropriate roles for government, as are financial, and environmental and safety regulation. Over the years, we have demanded that these roles be fulfilled. We love this most about our country: Here we care about each other.

American revolutionaries believed in government and accepted taxes set by elected representatives. And that's just what we have today. Whether born here or becoming citizens or legal residents by choice, we enjoy the blessings of this society and we have obligations to follow the laws and to pay taxes.

How is this coercion or taxing us against our will when we are free to live elsewhere? Without our government we would effectively have no income and our assets would have no legal standing or even a record. Without government we may think we have individual rights, but there is nothing to assure them, no one to truly "protect our freedoms.

With funding and misinformation from capitalistic, multi-national corporations, today's tea partiers (about 80% are Republican), libertarians and ultra-conservatives, wrap themselves in the "patriot" flag. However, ideologically they bear a stronger resemblance to the secessionist southerners than to American revolutionaries. They even talk of states' rights and secession. For the policies they advocate, they would be on the side of the British and the East India Company were we back in revolutionary days. They support the anti-tax, anti-government policies that serve the mega-rich. They protest high taxes when they, themselves, just received a huge tax cut enacted as a stimulus to the economy. Income taxes in 2009 were at an historic low

They claim, but have no evidence, that the government is intruding on their individual rights. On the contrary, it is these extremists who pose the greatest risk to individual rights. Where they have been able to gain power themselves, instead of solving real problems they have enacted laws that certainly do intrude on the Constitutional rights of millions. For example, Arizona's anti-immigrant law, Oklahoma's invasion of the doctor/patient relationship regarding abortion, and some state denials of equal protection under the law to all.

They complain that the deficit is too large, yet said nothing when most of the deficit grew by tax cuts for the wealthy and two unfunded wars. The portion of the deficit caused by recent spending was essential to turn around this deep recession caused by, you guessed it, the mega-rich. They don't see that we can more quickly pay down the deficit if we rebuild middle America and return to fair taxes for the wealthy than if we destroy the safety nets just to keep top tax rates low. Despite ample evidence that the stimulus did work to prevent economic free fall, they call it a failure.

They want to "take back" a country that they haven't even lost. Many are proud of their faith, some even proclaiming this is a Christian nation. How is it, then, immoral for us to be taxed but perfectly moral to eliminate our social programs that fulfill the "Golden Rule"?

Middle and low-income Americans have every reason to be angry these days. They have been dealt a raw deal; an unprecedented reduction in their economic wellbeing. But some are directing their ire in the wrong direction. It's not the government, workers, immigrants, or minority group members who have harmed us. It's the banksters, the Wall Street stalkers and "free-market" capitalists.

Yet those same capitalists use their billions now to feed back to the uninformed all the talking points of the ultra right. Their purpose is have us detest the government because that is the only force that can stand up to their unbridled greed. They want us to repudiate the mission of the government to care for the least among us just so they can avoid their fair share in taxes. And their vision for America's future is...what? Future? What's that? If it's beyond their next quarterly earnings, it doesn't matter.

Commentary: The only currency of value in a free society is truth, everything else is harmful.
The New American Tea party would have you believe that their skewed version of the original Boston Tea Party represents a valid, if not, thinly disguised argument for their fascist philosophy. They would do away our individual rights, while giving corporations sway over us by their predominant economic philosophy of globalization Taxation is a red herring. If their reading of history is wrong then the all of the philosophies—based on that misreading—they espouse are flawed and therefore suspect.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Mitch McConnell: Mouth from the South

Corporate America has its hand so far up the backsides of politicians like Mitch McConnell that they have become nothing more than talking dummies for their corporate masters and that poses the real danger to this Democratic Republic.

Arguably the passage of Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 and the effective repeal of Glass–Steagall Act of 1933 was at the root cause of the banking collapse. The Glass-Steagall Act prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and an insurance company.

"The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, and insurance companies to consolidate. For example, Citicorp (a commercial bank holding company) merged with Travelers Group (an insurance company) in 1998 to form the conglomerate Citigroup, a corporation combining banking, securities and insurance services under a house of brands that included Citibank, Smith Barney, Primerica, and Travelers. This combination, announced in 1993 and finalized in 1994, would have violated the Glass-Steagall Act and the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 by combining securities, insurance, and banking, if not for a temporary waiver process. The law was passed to legalize these mergers on a permanent basis".

It's passage stripped away 66 years of protection from monopolistic banking malpractice. The banks were unleashed and the madness of greed blinded them to their own foibles. Thus creating the premise of "too big to let fail". "The problems of "Too Big To Fail" are related to the concept of moral hazards. Because of society's implicit guarantee of their survival, firms considered "too big to fail" have more incentive to take positions with high-risk, high-reward positions, since rewards would accrue to their directors and shareholders, while catastrophic losses would be born by taxpayers (e.g., through a government bailout). A secondary effect is to reduce or eliminate a firm's incentive for proper risk management, normally a complex and expensive aspect of business.[2] The phrase has also been more broadly applied to refer to a government's policy to bail out any corporation". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Big_to_Fail

The hypocrisy of the Republicans is again going full tilt with the recent triad against the Banking Reform Bill making its way through congress. Mitch, "the mouth from the south," McConell is pontificating "ex cathedra" that the new Democratic sponsored banking reform bill was a "Bank Bailout Bill", trying to tap into the anger of the average American towards the term Bank Bailout. The claim echoes advice from Republican pollster Frank Luntz to members of the GOP who oppose the financial industry reform bill to label it a "bailout" bill.

The truth is that before the Republican led bailout under George Bush Mitch McConnell had a very close relationship with the CEO of AIG, in fact, "the senator had given paid speeches for AIG, and had stepped in on its behalf in federal disputes. In 1987, McConnell tried to spare AIG from having to pay claims on the $200 million policy it underwrote for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The bugged building had to be rebuilt.

AIG through its PAC's was a major contributor to McConell. "In 1999, a group of corporate donors organized as the Committee on Economic Development decided they had had enough of writing massive campaign checks and decided to endorse the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation. According to one of their leaders, an executive with the accounting firm Deloitte Touche, the group was tired of receiving fundraising calls from members like McConnell reminding them of pending legislation that would hurt their company. The implication was that a donation was expected." Big Money Mitch was “Thuggish” | Big Money Mitch!

Calling the Banking Reform Bill, a "Bailout Bill" is a breathtakingly disingenuous misstatement from one of the republican leaders who voted to for the: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act according to GovTrack: Senate Vote On Passage: S. 900 [106th]: Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act: Kentucky: Yea McConnell, Mitch [R]

His in your face arrogance is especially egregious, considering McConnell received ($3,459,021 million) in donations from the "Finance, Insurance and Real Estate" sector more than any other sector, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Mitch McConnell: Campaign Finance/Money - Industries - Senator 2010 | OpenSecrets

To say that Mitch McConell doesn't give a flying flip about the average American is an understatement, because this is the same Mitch McConell named "Insurance Puppet" by Public Campaign Action Fund's national campaigns director after taking in $523,000, and delivering 50 speeches on the the floor of the Senate parroting the insurance industries talking points and calling the Health Care Bill a "socialist take over" of the health care industry. Who's Pulling the Strings?--InsurancePuppets.com

HealthCare Bill: Kentucky: Nay McConnell, Mitch [R]

Commentary: Its been said that America has the best Government (politicians) money can buy. The truth of that statement becomes more and more evident if you follow the money trail. The political leaders in this country have formed their own interests contrary to the needs of the people who have elected them. The recent furor of the Tea Party is a joke. The joke is on the people being duped by right winged politicians and their talking heads who are bought and paid for by the real power brokers in this country. The only hope for this country is the vote, before Corporations, like Diebold, in concert with corrupt politicians install electronic voting machines and take away even that fundamental right, like they did in 2000, 2004 and tried to do again in 2008.


Monday, March 29, 2010

Rise of the Fascist Right and Death of Our American Democractic Republic



Add Image







"Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism'.
I'm afraid, based on my own long experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
—Sen. Huey Long—

Creating controversy and blaming the opposition for responding is a not a new tactic for the Republican Fascist Party. But it has evolved to evermore ridiculous heights of cynical manipulation, with the recent passage of the Health Care Bill.

Republican leadership and right wing talkingheads began by using rhetoric that inflamed the lunatic libertarian right wing fringe to violence— and then blamed the Democrats for mentioning that very real and dangerous insightment of violence—and then they turned around and castigated the Democrats for mentioning their reprehensible behavior in Democratic fund raising messages.

I watched in utter amazement as Candy Crowley of CNN grilled, David Axelrod, in bulldog fashion and tried over and over again to blame the Democrats for escalating the current political animosity by merely mentioning the violence and threats of violence emanating from the right, in Democratic fund raising appeals. When that failed she pulled the same loaded question on her next quest Senator Barbara Mikulski.

Blame the victim is a favorite attack of the right. What makes this hypocrisy even more telling is that when asked to sign a pledge for bipartisan civility the RNC (Republican Nazi Committee) chairman Michael Steele said through a spokesman that, "The Republican National Committee will not sign the civility statement condemning threats and vandalism against members of Congress".

Make no mistake the real danger this country faces is not from some imagined boogeyman—conjured by the Republican propaganda machine—of a socialist, liberal agenda, but a from very real and diabolical fascist right wing cabal—fronted by, bought and paid for their shills—Republican Fascist Congressmen—who have spent millions of dollars lying to the American people about the new Health Care Bill.

Do you think there's any connection between—the universal adamantine objections of every Republican in the House and Senate—and the legions of Insurance, Drug and various other corporate special interest lobbyists flooding, the campaign chests of these Congressmen with millions of dollars of contributions and plastering the American air waves with distortions and lies, about a Bill that would benefit the vast majority of Americans?

To be sure, there is a cynical calculated effort by these fascist thugs to highjack the American political process, and enslave the American people to Corporate interest that have taken over this country. What do you think "the Bank Bailout" was but corporate welfare under the Bush administration. How did a republican appointee in the last hours of a republican Presidency dump a trillion dollar windfall into the laps of American Bankers? And then in a Machiavellian twist blame Obama for it.

The Republicans have created the myth of a liberal media when in truth the American mainstream media is owned and operated by very wealthy men with, a Mussolinian view of fascism— that is—an incestuous collaboration of corporate and government entities bent towards ultimate economic control of the population. Any honest reading of the history preceding and during World War Two will show the ultimate goal of this kind of cabal is control the population through fear e.g.. "the war on terrorism" along with a ramped up uber-nationalistic fervor resulting in violence and murder leading to a take over of power. This tendency of the right towards demagoguery and authoritarian government are not new in this country.

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power."
—Benito Mussolini, Fascist dictator of Italy—


"Without exhaustive debate, even heated debate, of ideas and programs, free government would weaken and wither. But if we allow ourselves to be persuaded that every individual or party that takes issue with our own convictions is necessarily wicked or treasonous then, indeed, we are approaching the end of freedom's road."
—Dwight D. Eisenhower—

"The dangerous American fascist is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information.
With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power...

Still another danger is represented by those who, paying lip service to democracy and the common welfare, in their insatiable greed for money and the power which money gives, do not hesitate surreptitiously to evade the laws designed to safeguard the public from monopolistic extortion...

"The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism...

They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
—Henry A. Wallace, 1944—

"There are troubling signs: Republican operatives disrupting a Florida vote recount by force; trashing the Constitution (as well as traditional safeguards of military law of the Geneva Convention) to go after an open-ended category of "terrorists"; the adoption of a frank imperial mindset and pre-emptive war; sympathy in some conservative quarters for violence against abortion clinics and ATF agents; a switch to recount-less, receipt-less, Republican-provided electronic voting systems.

But most of this-- as well as the quest to give big business everything it wants-- is pursued quietly, without fascist trumpeting."
—Robert O. Paxton—

...Another result of the close "collaboration" between business and government in Italy was a continual interchange of personnel between the. . . civil service and private business.' Because of this "revolving door" between business and government, Mussolini had created a state within the state to serve private interests which are not always in harmony with the general interests of the nation. Mussolini's "revolving door" swung far and wide...

The whole idea behind collectivism in general and fascism in particular is to make citizens subservient to the state and to place power over resource allocation in the hands of a small elite... Such decisions should be made by a "dominant class" he labeled "the elite."
—Thomas J. DiLorenzo—

Decide for yourself, here are the Fourteen Characteristics of Fascism as stated by Dr. Lawrence Britt.

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.
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, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
7. Obsession with National Security -
Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
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.
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.
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.
11. 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 and letters is openly attacked.
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.
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.
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.

Dr Britt goes on to say, "The above fourteen point definition of fascism clearly describes the current state of the United States of America, particularly under the second Bush Administration - a regime awash in corruption, secrecy, theocracy, militarism and election fraud. Never before in the history of this country have the people as a whole been rendered so powerless by a ruling, corporate, elite and gang of "New World Order—Project For a New Century" imperialists.

Given the media control by a handful of powerful and unelected few, never before has the need for radical reforms been so necessary, and yet so difficult to mount.

As for the fourteen points, the only point which is no longer quite so applicable and defining today is that of economic Nationalism. While the flags may still wave, the country is being economically dismantled by a forced trade regime - i.e., an undemocratic, GATT-NAFTA, scheme written by and for globalizing mega-corporate interests. Forced interdependence, reward of the greater slave, giving away our industrial base to undemocratic powers, a war to divert our attention from the destruction of freedom, privacy and democracy at home is the order of the day. Added to this is the deliberate ruin of our currency to achieve a semblance of trade balance... an impossible feat once you no longer domestically manufacture goods to export and your service sector is also being decimated by outsourcing.

In short, preemptive wars and imperialism aside, the fascism we see today is not one aimed at strengthening the country but, rather, in reducing it to second and third-world status via a process of "harmonization" the people no longer control, and via interest-bearing debt ruin. It is only our remaining freedom, independence, wealth, Constitution and Internet democracy which stand in the way of a completed "Trilateralism" - i.e., a well-known, decades-old, ruling elite, scheme to reduce nation states to pawns in a corporate, controlled, global, fascist state and secure the neo-enclosures of the 21st century."

Commentary:
What we have here is a failure of the American voter to recognize where the real threat to our American democratic republic lies. Not in the republicans conjured boogeyman of liberal socialism as the Republicans would have you believe but, in fascism which they actively promote, by the use of deliberate misdirection. The Republicans are on the verge of making a political comeback unless you, the American voter wake up and stop them. They are the true enemy within.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

America: A Dream In Distress


As a disillusioned political observer I have come to the conclusion that The American Dream is a web of carefully nurtured deceptions that is unravelling at an accelerated rate.

Until 2000 I was too busy with my life, career, and raising a family to notice. I was lulled by my successes into, naively, believing that everything was alright, unaware of the titanic struggle for power and control of America's soul. I woke up too late.

I've seen the men behind the curtain who manipulate peoples emotions for power. The "man" behind the curtain is actually a group of rich powerful men who are running a Ponsi scheme where they own everything and we suckers chase after "the reality" they have created.

Some of you are light years ahead of me in coming to the same conclusion. Some are far behind me. Some will never wake up. Never the less the hard cold truth is, we have traded our away our lives in pursuit of "el dorado", that mythical place of untold wealth and self indulgent excess, where if we buy enough of something we will achieve bliss. It is a lie, told and retold so many times, by so many people, including myself, that we live in a stupor of "reality" that is artificially contrived.

The plain truth is that we cannot sustain the American Dream and we should not try. It is utterly irresponsible to future generations. The American landscape is littered with devalued "McMansions" nobody can afford, this failure of the real estate market, where most Americans' "wealth" lies, was the first crack in the foundation of these lies and self deception. That artificially, over-inflated market brought about the the collapse of Wall street. The bubble burst and lives were changed dramatically. Bernie Madoff went from genius Wall Street guru to goat, from a 5th Avenue penthouse to a 6x9 foot cell. And the victims of the Madoff's uber-sociopathic personality, were forced into poverty and some into homelessness. AGI went from a solid international financial giant to an example of American hubris, greed, and retched executive excess. Masters of the universe undone. America went from being, the grandiose, self proclaimed, "wealthiest nation in the world" to a worldwide financial pariah. The biggest dead beat on the planet.

Until recently I still believed that the fundamental expression of equality and freedom of the founding fathers was still in play. And still worth the struggle. Another self deception. The plain truth is we can't effect change because the oligarchy own and control everything including, Congress, the Courts, and the mass media. The problem with people like me is we that we think that by speaking out we can effect a change in the ultimate direction and course of the game.

But the message is drowned out by false messiahs like Hannity, O'Rielly, Limbaugh and their legion of "dittoheads", who are too stupid to have an original thought, and are unintelligent enough to actually self-proclaim the pejorative, that "dittoheads" implies, as in, mindless repeaters of sophistic nonsense.

These shills, are the well paid Judas goats who lead many to a false sense of security with a smug arrogance of outright deception, the ultimate insiders playing everyone else for suckers. A prime example are members of the Tea Party that invade town-hall meetings to shout down anyone they disagree with, about Health Care. Just like at the Peace Rallies of the sixties, that were invaded by provocateurs, paid stooges, who incited violence to give police an excuse to break bones and curtail our fundamental right, to peacefully assemble and petition our government for a redress of grievances, which led to unarmed students being murdered at Kent State.

Reason is a noble pursuit, but, ultimately futile, which it is why men's conflicts so often degenerate into war and the needless deaths of those who have no stake in, "the game", getting and controlling real wealth, the natural resources that every human being relies on for their existence.

This is my last post about American politics. My final advice is: if you can, get a piece of land, grow your own food and live a simpler life, one that has sustained the human race for thousands of generations. I am taking my own advice and I am unplugging from the matrix.

Who knows if the mood strikes me my next post maybe: How to grow your own food and raise chickens in rural Minnesota.

Hasta la vista!