ECONOMY  
AlterNet / By Robert Freeman
comments_imageCOMMENTS: 390

Does America Face the Risk of a Fascist Backlash?

The Right's ability to capitalize on people's sense of grievance must not be underestimated.
March 19, 2009  |  
 
 
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By the time of the Great Depression, Adolph Hitler's ironically named National Socialist Party had become the biggest vote getter in the nation. The Nazis had once been derided as the lunatic fringe of the far right. But the "respectable" right-wing power brokers who had started and lost the Great War anointed Hitler Chancellor in January, 1933.

He immediately suspended the constitution, abolishing most civil liberties. He outlawed opposition parties, began a massive military build-up and a relentless propaganda campaign, and set Germany and the world onto the path of the greatest destruction it would ever know.

America now faces its own "Weimar moment."

The failure of right wing policy and leadership over the past eight years, especially in matters economic, is comparable to Germany's right-wing failure in World War I. It is catastrophic, undeniable, and complete.

Consider:

According to the World Economic Forum, forty percent of the entire world's wealth has been destroyed in the recent financial collapse. In the U.S. alone, between housing and the stock market, more than $18 trillion in wealth has already been destroyed.

The private mega-banks that anchor the financial systems of the western world are bankrupt. This makes it all but impossible to jump-start the western world's economies which are heavily dependent on bank-system credit to operate.

More than 10,000 homes go into foreclosure every day. More than 20,000 people lose their job every day. And the collapse is accelerating, developing its own self-reinforcing dynamic. Job losses breed foreclosures, reducing demand, leading to more job losses and further degradation of the financial system. None of the stopgaps designed to stanch the bleeding have yet worked. There is no bottom in sight.

Meanwhile, debt has risen to astronomical levels. Reagan and Bush I quadrupled the national debt in only twelve years. Bush II doubled it again in only eight. It is now ten times higher than it was in 1980 when Reagan was elected. Total public and private debt exceeds 300% of GDP, half again higher than it was in 1929.

The government's unfunded liabilities, promises it has made to the American people but for which no payment source can be identified, now exceed $60 trillion, a literally inconceivable sum that can never, will never, be paid. Federal Reserve economist Lawrence Kotlikoff has suggested that the U.S. government is "actuarially bankrupt."

The full measure of the nation's plight is revealed in Hillary Clinton's first trip as Secretary of State. It was to China, to beg them to fund Obama's new fiscal deficits. Without loans from China, the U.S. economy cannot be revived. The significance of this cannot be overstated: the U.S. no longer exercises sovereignty over its own economic affairs. That sovereignty now resides in the hands of China, the U.S.'s greatest long-term rival.

Thanks to Republican policies of massive debt and shipping jobs abroad, the U.S. has technically become a colony of China. It exports raw materials and imports finished goods, together with the capital to make up the difference. Should the Chinese decide not to lend the trillions of dollars the U.S. is begging for, the U.S. economy will implode, plummeting onto itself in a World Trade Center-like collapse that will leave dust clouds circling the planet for decades.

Notwithstanding the destruction inflicted on the economy by Republican policies, the most devastating breakdown is in the intellectual foundation on which right wing economic ideology itself is premised. Free market doctrine, the secular religion of right-wing America, is in utter, irretrievable shambles.

One of the most lofty tenets on which free markets are premised is their claim for themselves that they are "efficient," that is, that market prices always reflect "fundamental values" of assets. But if that's true, how could the world's largest insurance company, AIG, have lost 99.5% of its market value in only 18 months? How could the world's largest bank, Citibank, have lost 98% of its value over the same period?

How could the world's largest brokerage company, Merrill Lynch, have gone bankrupt and need to be bought by Bank of America? How could the world's largest car company, General Motors, have lost 95% of its value and stand on the threshold of extinction? How could the world's largest industrial conglomerate, General Electric, have lost 85% of its value in only 18 months?

If the largest companies in the world, those at the very heart of the capitalist system itself, can lose virtually all of their value in only 18 months, what is the possible meaning of the phrases "efficient markets" and "fundamental value"?

The other core tenets of free market ideology are equally compromised. Major actors are clearly not rational -- a breakdown of theological proportions admitted by no less an avatar of the cult than its pope himself, Alan Greenspan. Free markets clearly cannot, will not, regulate themselves. It is precisely their innate, irrepressible propensity for sociopathic greed and predatory fraud that has brought the whole of the world's economy to the precipice of collapse.


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Robert Freeman writes on history, economics and education.
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The article is chillingly possible for America!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Jay Randal on Mar 19, 2009 12:21 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am too tired to write this at 3:00 am, but the article is basically correct. The extreme far-right GOPers can regain power in 2012. They can do it by painting Obama as a Wall Street stooge. Unfortunately Barack does act like a stooge already. If he fails to become a new FDR, then a Hitlerian Republican could become prez in 2012.

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» MeinGopKamp Posted by: wallisp

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Obama's Incrementalism and Intransigence Could Be Our Demise
[Report this comment]
Posted by: mmckinl on Mar 19, 2009 12:36 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama's failure to take the lead on the issues could well spell his failure and a severe right wing shift for the country.

Obama ...

~ Has left the reform and restructuring of the banks to the very Wall Street crowd that perpetrated the disaster to their own profit.

~ Has said little and done less about War Crimes and Torture .... Where are the investigations? Is He using Bush's template of GWOT going forward?

~ Continues to capitulate to the health care and pharma industries.

~ Has said little and done less about Palestine and the Israelis.

~ Has not acknowledged the violations of civil rights of the past 8 years.

Obama's strategy of "consensus" instead of leadership will be undermined and attacked at every turn, by every interest group through their bought and paid for Congress. His popularity ratings are already slipping.

Unless Obama takes on a bold program of economic and social change towards a more egalitarian future and exposes the civil rights violations, war crimes and financial crimes with broad and sweeping investigations it will be as if the last 8 years were not an aberration but the prelude to our much darker future.

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» RE: good for you pfgetty. Posted by: AngryWhiteFemale
» RE: As long as 9/11 remains an open wound Posted by: tim_s_eb@yahoo.com
» YES. Posted by: pfgetty

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Whatever
[Report this comment]
Posted by: DivadNhoj1981 on Mar 19, 2009 12:52 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Right has messed up terribly to the point it can't even pay me to join them.

Didn't any of you listen to Obama's Election Victory speech in which he said there are no quick fixes? The problems at America's doorstep are results of King George IV's poor, pathetic attempt at leadership. There are so many of them it may take years, even centuries to undo the hideous damage.

I'd rather here the truth right away than live an eight-year lie.

Also, I find it funny how some Americans act like the sky is falling whenever the Obama White House commits an honest mistake. Must be cozy in that glass house, huh?

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» Rahm Israel Emanuel is hardly Posted by: weathered
» RE: Whatever Posted by: Spot
» RE: Whatever Will Be Will Be? Posted by: americansheep
» Tom Ridge? Posted by: LeftWright

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obama is not an alternative to neoliberal poltics
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Spot on Mar 19, 2009 1:51 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
we need not wait until 2012 for a right-wing government. for all intents and purposes we have one right now.

the military engagements aren't yet brought to a end, promises to close the war in iraq have been proven empty by obama's continual retreat from the progressive/left community's demands.

economically, the foxes are still running the hen house. watching barney frank and other wall street apologists speak from their offices and rotundas as if they weren't behind the wheel the entire time just sickens me. the fact that there's a d instead of an r by their name on fox news doesn't fool me, and it shouldn't fool you. a rich man still sits higher on his wallet than a poor man can stand, and these reps have unparalleled job security and 6-figure salaries.

"a new era of fiscal responsibility" is obamaspeak for "open wide john q. foodstamps, here comes drastic cuts to social services". there isn't any money, and the only reason we can keep spending it is because if the economy stops now, the whole 20th century disappears. hope is better than fear, but it's not as good as food.

a truly progressive government wouldn't need to be continually chastened by its constituents. a real socialist government would have the goals of the lower classes unflinchingly displayed at the forefront of its ideology. if obama really wanted to move to the left, he wouldn't be investing his time and power into organizing with the right-wing opposition to create a top-down system of control over what remains of a tattered economy.

it's not incrementalism, it's not intransigence. obama never was what we elected him to be. as the premise of the article makes clear, he has until 2011 to prove himself capable of being the change we need™, but there's no reason at all that working (and ex-working) people owe him their loyalty. i hope he can become what we need him to be, but if he fails i will have no problem throwing him under the bus for an actual progressive alternative.

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The Bush II administration as a botched fascist takeover
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Posted by: Perry Logan on Mar 19, 2009 2:38 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I take heart in the fact that today's Republicans lack the balls and brains of real Nazis. :)

Naomi's Wolfe's The End of America makes it clear that Bush II was a botched fascist takeover.

As Wolfe demonstrates, the Bush gang implemented every single element of a totalitarian goverment--invoke a terrifying enemy; create a gulag where torture is practised; set up a domestic surveillance system' create a lawless paramilitary; rig the elections, etc.

That was the last eight years. The only missing element was the intelligence and courage to bring the job off. Now that they have alienated the entire world, the chance of a far-left dictatorship seems much greater than the chance for fascism.

Video of me Forgiving the Neocons (or trying to).

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» Dismantle AIPAC Posted by: weathered
» Dismantle Israel Posted by: thornwolf
» RE: Dismantle Israel Posted by: Javan
» Botched? Posted by: cplot
» RE: Botched? Posted by: Spot
» The only missing element Posted by: kegbot1

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Fascism
[Report this comment]
Posted by: cplot on Mar 19, 2009 2:42 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ironic that an article about avoiding the NAZI road to fascism is using overblown statistics about America's liabilities ($60 billion?) and lamenting the end of Western glory (“But failure now by the U.S. will shift that center once again, from the United States to China, out of the western world where it has resided for the past 500 years”). Aren't these misdirections participating in the same fascist rhetoric the left wants to avoid? Is our problem that China may ascend to World dominance or that fascists US nationals are robbing us blind? The finance industry, the military industry, the prison industry and the medical industry are all treating US citizens as their own private piggy banks: slamming us open with hammers and extracting every bit of value out of us. And you think the problem is that the Chinese are gaining ground and that the West is losing its destined superiority?

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» RE: Fascism Posted by: Spot
» RE: Fascism Posted by: MT512
» RE: Fascism Posted by: cplot
» RE: Fascism Posted by: kjtvc

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Don't Forget the Impact of Printing Money
[Report this comment]
Posted by: davidhhahn on Mar 19, 2009 3:29 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It was not just the debt from war and reparations, it was the massive devaluation in money (or inflation of prices) that was the real cause of panic, and hence, Fascist opportunity in Germany.

Print Reichsmarks at an unprecendented speed allowed the economy to collapse. Hitler seized the opportunity implementing price controls, government work, and heavy federal involvement in the economy. The "free market" was killed off and a stable money supply gave way to rationing and government mandates.

Now, just in the last few days the Federal Reserve has announce a new TALF program that will inflate the money supply by $1 Trillion and announced today that they will buy more government securities to inflate the money supply by another $1 Trillion.

This will lead to inflation and, we hope not, but likely hyper-inflation.

That is what we need to be careful of and the Obama administration is in charge now. They are doing some of this by fiat, no legislation, no right wing trying to block them. Obama is doing it...and he may not know what he is doing.

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Forget far right "GOP"ers
[Report this comment]
Posted by: johnwinthrop on Mar 19, 2009 4:25 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
People of all walks of life, backgrounds, regions, and neighborhoods are fed up. fedup with chaos. things just happen. oil prices. schools suck. paychecks shrunk by taxes and few visible public services(cops, roads?).
obama shoveling trillions to incompetent bankers and mortgage swindlers and this is called stimulus. immigration laws ignored, americans out of work, 711s full of employed nonenglish speakers on their way to work at 6am.

we didn't get to vote on this. they shipped the jobs overseas and all the parties and leaders went along. towns and cities died. english is spoken all around the world but less so in america. the english that is spoken is corrupted by racist hip hop that is a plan to crush what's left of freedom blacks won in the sixties. our colleges suck; most are voke schools with incompentent writers and math practicioners getting degrees in business and communications. they expect to start at seventy grand plus per year.and all those lawyers graduating ever more law schools. can anyone in American build a bridge. who will use the stimulus money to DO anything? More immigrants from India?

if a Leader appears to impose order, this constitution and weak minded expectation society is toast. bye affirmative action. bye immigrants. by informal slovenly run schools. hello single sex education and goodbye hollywood run for the painted adolescents.

lot of veterans coming home. they can shoot. they believe they fought for america. not the america that wants a handout for doing nothing and sticking an ipod in one ear and typing a text message in broken English in a classroom or driving.

Nationalism always wins. Security always wins. Crime will go up as obama promotes a something for nothing society.

our hitler will look unlike hitler. maybe a black woman?

but order is the common key.

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» Some good points. Posted by: Hechicera
» English is the language of America Posted by: johnwinthrop

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Repug Base only Comprehends Short Slogans
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Purple Girl on Mar 19, 2009 4:32 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
so it is time we stop thinking they will comprehend big concepts by explaining them at length. Repugs have acted like the foot soldiers of the Corps, aka the RED COATS for the Logo'ed Family Crests.
Most 'liberals' have known this for decades- 'trickle Down'= Feudalistic cast system.Siphoning an dpilferring from the prodcution of th eSerf class to support the lavish life styles of the elite.
They have controlled laws and jurisprudence through lobbyists- granting Rights and priviledges to the monarchial logos.They have instigated wars to further their wealth and further plunder the coffers.
Worse Yet is the fact the Religious 'Right' has become the New Vatican- Deseminating and legislating morality and adherence.
So we need to KISS
Republican= Red Coat
Evangelicals= The Vatican
Unfortunaltely as they hae proven with their mass Hyteria over 'drill babay Drill' they may not be able to explain the slogan entirely- but they'll get the drift.
Jesus how much lead base paint did the Repugs and their base eat when they were kids- are they continuing to use this self inflected agent for mental retardation via the Chinese produced Toys Too?They are Not the Sharpest Tools in the Shed- we need to dumb it down if we expect them to understand the reality of what has happened to our country which was founded on the ideology that Our Form of Gov't would be 'for the people and By the people', as was our Free market. Not for the Corps and By the Corps- Or any church.

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Of Carts and Horses
[Report this comment]
Posted by: talkville on Mar 19, 2009 4:53 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Fascism and fascist forms, in their social, economic and political dimensions have already largely succeeded, on this higher and more globalized stage, since the days of Nixon, straight through to the culmination, consolidation and implementation in largely finished forms brought to us courtesy of the Bush-Cheney Regime. With the "Global War on Terror" replacing "Communism" in foreign policies as well as the "Patriot Acts" and the consolidation of military and police powers in the domestic area within the "Homeland Security" apparatus, the Corporate-State has achieved the complete sub-ordination of all the people, individually as well as collectively, under its thumb. As it developed through WWI and WWII, it has always been one aim: Save Capitalism, which chugging and sputtering and yet in continual decline and/or stagnation returns again and again, in shorter cycles of "boom and bust and bubbles" to increasingly bring benefits available to ever diminishing numbers of capitalists and miseries to an ever expanding number of workers, small-business owners, independent craftsmen, professionals, etc. The banner is always: Save Capitalism,by any and all means necessary -- the private ownership of the means and control of production and finance. If they can't enslave by Wage, they will do so by Debt.

Stalin and the Bureaucratic Stalinism of those days did much also to bring about the debacle that became WWII and the Interwar developments. He, too, knew about the Privileges available to the Few by belonging to the Elites in Power.

It is not a "back-lash" by Fascists that needs to be explained; it is the strange quiescence, acceptance and resignation to the developments in society and culture, economics and politics that step by step consolidated and constructed precisely the Corporate-State as we now all are experiencing and which is carefully kept in place by the immense expansion of policing and surveillance which we all must endure in every single aspect of our lives. All the elements are in place for implementation of Fascist Authority if it is determined to be necessary.

As long as the problem is posed in the context of "saving capitalism", giving it the ultimate priority, fascism will not remain in the realm of the possible; it'll be not only the likely but the actual method and program implemented to accomplish that Salvage.

We are already within what this article so ably describes with regard to the past; except at a scale and stage immensely more worrying and precarious for the vast majorities of this earth's populations, including our own. I can only hope we've learned a bit since those days that culminated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are still those who remember... .

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» RE: Of Carts and Horses Posted by: sunnywater

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Propaganda History = FASCIST FABLES
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Posted by: Mister_PsyOps on Mar 19, 2009 4:54 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The story above is so wrong on so many levels I thought I’d address some bedrock basics.

The “Great War” WW 1 was cooked lock stock and barrel by western oligarchs (J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, etc). Germany sued for peace well before the end of the madness and was turned down. Flat. The war was too profitable. Hitler's Germany in ashes after WW1 could have done NOTHING without funding. Hitler's FASCIST Germany was bankrolled by the same monopoly oligarchs that promoted WW1 and the Bolshevik Coup (not "Revolution") in Russia.

Wall Street and the Bolshevik "Revolution"

It's tragically odd but nobody at the corporate MSM or “education” establishment asks the most basic question: how could Germany that was a broken trash heap of a wasteland after WW1 come to become the most potent world power on the globe in barely a decade?

Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler

It took many tens of billions of dollars to fund Germany’s war machine (trillions by current standards). And virtually all of that blood money cash came from American and British FASCISTS who loved the idea of a Hitler they thought they could control. Of course their plans backfired. After a certain point, Hitler stopped taking orders and would not even take robber baron money. Germany was transformed in months to be run as an ultra-efficient barter economy that rejected the debt based global banking system controlled by people like J.P. Morgan, J.D. Rockefeller and N.M. Rothschild and sons. Some paranoid sociopath dictators do have enemies and Hitler picked the very worst of the worst. Fascist bankers that ran the U.S. and Britain could not abide a rebel Fascist they could not control.

So it was freeloading corporate Fascism against Hitler’s Fascism. Mad sociopath that he was, Hitler might have won if he’d been more patient. But with the entire west run by monopoly oligarchs against Hitler, and with Russia driven to counter-attack Germany – the deck was completely stacked against him.

The old “right” vs “left” dialectic is the most shallow and naïve lie ever told.

Control the money and you control everything else that matters. All sides have been rigged, extorted and shaken down by the same power for hundreds of years now. It keeps the “masses” occupied and blinded as to who and what actually pulls the strings. And the red herring folly of pointing the finger at “rightwing” and “leftwing” actors makes for tremendous profits generated by banking debt. As ex-Governor Jesse Ventura has said, Washington is no more real than WWE wrestling. It’s an expensive runway farce. Blood money war and Ponzi scheme debt based banking (“Federal Reserve” Corp that is not federal and has zero reserves) is the most profitable business on earth. Always has been.


Fascism
any movement, tendency, or ideology that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism
Encarta® World English Dictionary ©

Democracy
the free and equal right of every person to participate in a system of government, often practiced by electing representatives of the people by the people (republic)
Encarta® World English Dictionary ©

Mussolini coined Fascism as the merger of corporate and state power with corporate power at command. It doesn’t take a genius to know which brand of government owns the Washington-MSM circus.

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» RE: No He Wasn't ... Exactly Posted by: edgar_michel
» Sources. Posted by: GuitarBill
» Idiotic Posted by: GuitarBill
» cplot didn't debunk anything Posted by: GuitarBill
» True enough . . . Posted by: Scientz
» Aren't you clever . . . Posted by: dustdevil
» Yes, I am clever. Posted by: GuitarBill
» Really, dustdevil? Posted by: Scientz
» You're sorry alright Posted by: GuitarBill
» PointMan, AKA, Loser . . . Posted by: Scientz
» More non-responses. Posted by: Scientz

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why not push for secure possession of your primary residence? this would reduce the insecurity
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Suzon on Mar 19, 2009 5:02 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that drives the rich to try to pile up more and more money and the fear that makes the rest of us tremble.

What do the rich and the poor have in common? Nightmares! We have lived in systems of government in which the penalties for being poor are harsh, the ultimate spending years on death row before a painful execution. Remember that English kings and queens have been locked up and beheaded--no one is safe. Hanging, drawing and quartering (while alive) wasn't outlawed until the 19th century.

I value Obama's demeanor. We need someone calming at the helm. Yes, I believe that he doesn't have much control at the moment and maybe he is more conservative than I would like to think, but what on earth would we be experiencing with McCain and Palin?

Yes, we need to be a counterforce to the machine, but remember that despite all the lies about Obama's birth and religion and our history of racism, we did elect this guy--and more overwhelmingly than the official numbers reported.

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» G.O.P.? Posted by: robert.noll
» RE: G.O.P.? Posted by: MT512

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When Obama and Congress told us to shut up and sacrifice, I got confirmation that they were just
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Zipidee DooDah & Dipidee DooDog on Mar 19, 2009 5:17 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
gonna continue doing what the GOP did. Time to impeach and prosecute Congress and the White House for not impeaching and prosecuting Bush and his gang. Why should we sacrifice when our tax dollars are going to corporate fascist pigs? FUCK YOU Congress and the White House for constantly lying to and stealing from us ! Time to get the Green Party to knock those two rightwing motherfucker parties out of Washington !!

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» How will you do that? Posted by: Beck

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Don't mourn, organize
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Posted by: Erik1968 on Mar 19, 2009 5:21 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's pretty disgusting how impotent Americans are. Get out from behind your computer, or face the wrath of the billionaires.

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Political Philosophy
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Posted by: jstuv on Mar 19, 2009 5:23 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In order to understand a political philosophy, take it to its final conclusion.

COMMUNISM: If everyone was compensated equally …and there is a grantee of employment, why would anyone want to work or innovate? COMMUNISM imploded.

FASCISM: If all dissenters were killed and all their possessions confiscated, how would the society continue? They would have to steal from and kill their own …which is what happened in 1944, 1945.

REPUBLICANISM: In order to maximize profit, all labor would be so minimally compensated that workers would practically be slaves. Wealth could only be inherited, as it would not be taxed. Elections would be perfunctory, as the outcome was already determined.

…And don’t forget that George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, admired Hitler and supported him, well into 1942.

(Google him)


DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM: If all wealth and services were equally shared, but that all citizens would have a say in their entire social and governmental structure, there would there be no need to steal or for war and war profiteering.

Think it out.

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» RE: Political Philosophy Posted by: Hechicera
» RE: It is totally abandoned, trust me I was born in Sweden I should now Posted by: Illuminatus- Enlightend Classic Liberal
» RE: Your "comprehensive welfare state" is not my "socialism" .. Posted by: Illuminatus- Enlightend Classic Liberal
» RE: Democratic socialism is authoritarian i.e on the road to fascism Posted by: Illuminatus- Enlightend Classic Liberal
» Democratic socialism leads to fascism Posted by: Illuminatus- Enlightend Classic Liberal
» National socialism is a sibling of socialism Posted by: Illuminatus- Enlightend Classic Liberal
» RE: Political Philosophy Posted by: TheLimit

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Irony -- and beware the desperation of the people
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Posted by: taxidriver on Mar 19, 2009 5:26 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Isn't it ironic that Bush/Cheney claimed they were spreading democracy overseas to places like Iraq, even as they were curtailing democracy here in the U.S.?

Didn't the Enabling Act give Hitler near-dictatorial powers after the burning of the Reichstag, and didn't Bush grab unprecedented powers (including the right, in theory, to annul the 1st and 4th Amendments to fight domestic "terrorists") after 9/11?

In times of severe economic turmoil, we must always be on guard against fascists, because people look for a "strong" leader when they're desperate. And they're even willing to sacrifice their rights for a few crumbs from "the leader."

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GOP's Biggest Mistake Was to Take the Money and Run
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Posted by: jbpazz on Mar 19, 2009 5:48 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
By November 2008 George Bush had all the powers of dictatorship. It would have been relatively easy for him to attack Iran and to declare Martial Law.
Why didn't he execute this? Were his handlers satisfied with the loot in hand? Did they see that the USA would fall short of world domination? Could they have assumed Obama was capable of running a dictatorship? Maybe, Bush and his buddies were just too lazy to pursue what they had accomplished.
Although Obama has all the mechanisms at his disposal, I think he is too humane to be a despot. Still, I think his opponents would do well not to provoke him.

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There is no right vs left
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Posted by: snowhound on Mar 19, 2009 5:49 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
We are moving toward a World government. Obama will be the prophet who leads us there. The economic collapse of America has been orchestrated by the international bankers. The patriots who believe in individual freedom will be the only resistance to this new government. Americas patriots will not be fighting for Fascism but they will be fighting for Freedom. The question is, how many of our citizens cherish freedom enough to fight for it.

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» RE: There is no right vs left Posted by: Suasponte
» RE: There is no right vs left Posted by: snowhound
» Yup. The f*cktards are invading. Posted by: GuitarBill

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Just What I've Been Saying
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Posted by: Lilly on Mar 19, 2009 6:25 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Freeman is right. As anyone knows who may have read my posts to AlterNet, I am fascinated by Conservative websites and go to them every day. Listen carefully: the people who leave their thoughts there are talking about armed insurrection against the Obama government. Always you can count on townhall.com and NRA links for gun enthusiasts who love to rhapsodize on their weapons with much technical detail and Hemingwayesque tough talk. Now, lately, there's a change. 1) A lot of them post about empty shelves and long lines at gun stores, about people buying up all the guns they can lay hands on, about spending any Obama tax relief on more guns, about stockpiling ammunition. 2) They also make not-always-very veiled threats like "it's time for a new American Revolution" and "I am ready for any government agent who tries to stop me". 3) Glenn Beck (FOX) has repeatedly hinted that armed insurrection would be a good idea---he doesn't exactly tell people to take up arms against Obama, but he encourages the subject then hides behind anything he can find, saying, like, well, gosh, this is what I am hearing and people just feel so strongly---they email me all the time--- that it won't be surprising if etc..

Politicians on the far Right are experts at stirring up anger, at feeding a sense of grievance and persecution. Look for this scenario in the Conservative soul: 1) I am chronically full of free-floating rage. 2) A politician draws a connection between my rage and some specific thing in the real world. 3) I see that, as usual, I am being persecuted (because I am conservative, white, male, Christian, whatever). 4) I've had enough and I'm not going to take it any more. 5) The voting booth is inadequate because liberals/Democrats cheat. 6) Therefore---I'm only being patriotic here---I am justified in hitting the streets, protesting with signs, sending teabags to Obama [symbol of Boston Tea Party], or, should I take a notion, opening fire. 7) I am heavily armed and know how to shoot.

I see the operative bit here as that perceived justification provides a moral high ground. "I am not thinking about resisting government because I am bad, but rather because I am patriotic and brave, and I will resist Obama just as my ancestors resisted King George."

BTW several people have already posted that they've refused to pay taxes to Obama and instead have sent the same money to their state. Does anyone happen to know whether this is being encouraged and organized by someone on TV or radio? I haven't heard.

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» RE: Just What I've Been Saying Posted by: snowhound
» RE: Just What I've Been Saying Posted by: clthompson
» RE: Just What I've Been Saying Posted by: snowhound
» RE: Just What I've Been Saying Posted by: snowhound
» RE: Just What I've Been Saying Posted by: Inconnu Monitor
» RE: Just What I've Been Saying Posted by: maxpayne

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You Can Be Sure.......
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Posted by: shill on Mar 19, 2009 6:52 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...that the right will be back. How Obama does in office depends on how much and how well they can organize, but we have been bouncing back and forth between these two extremes for years now. We need more political parties.

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» RE: You Can Be Sure....... Posted by: robert.noll

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john visher
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Posted by: jvisher on Mar 19, 2009 7:12 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Excuse me, but we are already in a FASCIST state - government by and for corporations, brutal and unrelenting military actions around the world, millions slaughtered. There is no turning this ship of state, not from O'bama's cramped little humanitarian closet. The U.S. empire isn't going to stop until it smashes headlong into the stoney headlands of depleted energy resources. Won't happen tomorrow, but it will happen in my children's life time, maybe even my own.

So the solution to the problem of U.S. empire is destruction of the United States. Then Washing DC will have to come to each state to form a "coalition of the willing" and the degree of participation will be consistent with the world's participation in the Iraq war - essentially zero.

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» RE: john visher Posted by: Javan

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Pretty misleading article..
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Posted by: 2thepoint on Mar 19, 2009 7:16 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
First, our economy is not as bad as it was under Carter.

Second, equating close to 50% of the nation with Hilter? Does that make Obama the equivalent to Castro of Chavez?

Mindsets as displayed in this article is one reason why our nation will always be hampered by the criminal two party system.

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Right on.......
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Posted by: Spiritgirl on Mar 19, 2009 7:18 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Dear Mr. President,
Unfortunately, this is a perfect article for the current Republican party!

Now what are you going to do to come back from this!? And better yet, as citizens, how can we stop them!? NOW!! Yesterday, before it's tooooo late?!

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We've been fascist since the Nixon Years
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Posted by: jeffrey7 on Mar 19, 2009 7:23 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Everytime one would use that word,back in the 'old days', you were shouted down by the media as well as the dominate culture. But then again,that's how it works. You start small with favorite TV and radio talk hosts calling down anyone who spoke out against the still corrupted government,even after tricky Dick's antics were discovered. let's not forget good old Henrey Kissenger saying,in regards to the administration's illegal activities, " The only thing illegal is a sick bird"

Ever since every President engaged in some kind of illegal or contemptable activities.

Carter screwed the Russians on a grain deal and supported the Sha of Iran,

Reagan/Bush comitted Treason with Iran/Contra.

Bush 1 was a War Criminal with Desert Storm and Central American Genocide in Honduros.

Clinton's term was marked by a great reduction of protection under the Bill of Rights,with constant bombings in Iraq and Bosnia and domestically stomping all over the poor.

'W'? There's not enough space to list what that assface has done, so I'll just have to say;
'FREE THE SHOE THROWER!!!'

how did they get away with all their crap?? The media!! The media whitewashed everything every Administration has done. Their job is to tell us the bullshit they were and continue to do. By failing the people they assisted the greedy,powermad idealists in their control of the many by the few.

That is the essence of fascism. The police-state tactice we see crammed down our throats by shows like 'Cops'. FBI files' CSI Anywhere',which correctly is a TV series and an invention of fiction,but it's origins are i truth. but this is just another example of 'control over Freedom'

Any parade that stands for anything other than
'God Bless America and it's President' will draw out thee riot police,suits of armour,M-16's,assult gear and in great numbers. the other tool of fascists.

When your Liberty and Freedom are surrendered for the sake of security, be it voluntary or by decree,the press 'sells it' to us as a good thing and the police and military fail to protect the people from corrupted politicians while the rich enjoy lives of blessed excess...
we live under fascism.

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It's not just the right wingnuts...
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Posted by: sharonsylvie on Mar 19, 2009 7:47 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's not just the right wingnuts who are furious, it's the left too. I'm a liberal and I'm blind with rage. I bet the entire country is close to exploding, not just the crazy Republicans. The difference is that the extreme right isn't interested in facts (I read their websites too). However, I know that I would be quite willing to join a rebellion (left-wingers have guns too). I don't think Congress understands what is happening throughout America as more people lose their homes and can't pay their bills. Property values are falling at alarming rates but my property tax just went up 25%. I have neighbors who can't earn enough to pay their mortgage and their electric bill in the same month. I often have to choose between heating and eating. Health care? Don't even go there.

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mistaken premise
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Posted by: bwo on Mar 19, 2009 7:49 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the extreme right wing conservatives will always yell and scream, but they won't convince the majority of the population that their views are rational. the argument made here was based on the similarities between our situation and hitler's rise to power. but a major difference is that the current administration was elected by an overwhelming majority, not by a small percentage garnered from a ballot weighted with candidates.

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Dead On
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Posted by: QQOblivion on Mar 19, 2009 8:02 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yes, the article is dead-on.

Just look at the most popular (among Republicans) miracle-makers of the Republican party who might be nominated for president in 2012: Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin.

Romney infamously said (to a cheering crowd) that he would "Double the size of Guantanamo!" if made president.
He also said that Bush and Cheney's problem was that they are TOO LIBERAL.

As for Palin, she is a believer in bringing about the Apocalypse by any means necessary.

In either case, they are both possibly WORSE than Bush and Cheney.

Let me tell you. President Obama HAS to succeed COMPLETELY by November 2012, or we WILL have a fascist president elected then.
And the way it looks now, this soon in the ball-game, Obama will indeed fail.

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Jesse Ventura said it best when he pointed out that
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Posted by: JenniferBedingfield on Mar 19, 2009 8:15 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
our government is no different from then Saddham's one when he pointed out that it's one party disguised as two designed to mislead the voters. May the lord have mercy on this nation.

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Time
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Posted by: RipVanWil on Mar 19, 2009 8:41 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Isnt it about time we say ENOUGH and DO something? For too long now the sheeple have just sat back and "took it". Enough is enough.

RT
Privacy Center

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The fascist backlash began in 1980 or so, didn't it?
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Posted by: gunboat diplomat on Mar 19, 2009 8:58 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The early years of the Reagan Administration and the early years of the Bush Administration were identical, characterized by massive incompetence, pandering to the military-industrial complex, tax cuts for billionaires, free-market fundamentalism in public and crony cartel setups in private - just blatant, outright fraud.

We are now in the post-Cold War era, with nuclear weapons, but many of the issues in WWI remain the same.

WWI Was not about the assassination of some Archduke - it was about German efforts to build a Berlin-Baghdad rail line, and thus gain access to Middle East oil, which they would use to replace coal - but Britain, France and Russia said no, as did the U.S., who all signed secret deals to split up the oil - and once they had defeated Germany, they also forced reparations.

The role the U.S. president, Woodrow Wilson, played, was very similar to that of GW Bush and Bush Sr - Wilson always presented himself as a do-gooder, while behind the scenes he was in bed with the major oil interests like Rockefeller's Standard (Wilson came to his job from the Governor of New Jersey slot - and the Mafia has nothing on the NJ governor -isn't the current one from Goldman Sachs?).

War for oil in the Middle East? Sound familiar?

However, the basic notion of this article is false - the "fascist backlash" is likely to occur in countries that are victims of U.S. policies, and is likely to proceed as it fif in Germany - ultranationalism, attacks on foreigners, etc. The ex-Soviet states at the end of the Cold War were the ones at greatest risk for a fascist takeover, truth be told.

In any case, the rising tide of elitist shame and populist digust are unlikely to lead to fascism in the U.S. It might lead to a backlash against robber barons and their secretive financial networks, as well as to a backlash against the charities and foundations and media institutions that do so much of the dirty work in this country, and who certainly share the blame for the current situation - wars in the Middle East over oil, economic collapse at home, and entangling relationships with the worst regimes on the planet, from Israel and Saudi Arabia and Iraq, to China and India and Burma, to Nigeria and Somalia and Chad and Sudan, we just have out fingers in all the dirty pies.

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Thank you Thomas Freeman for your intelligent, insight, truthful article.
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Posted by: using on Mar 19, 2009 9:06 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As you read the comments you will experience first hand some of the NEW BROWN SHIRTS...actively working on Alternet to convert tomorrow's New SA..

Whatever the article...the answer always remains the same for them. For their motivation is hate, and their agenda is to mold the thinking of the caring/fearing minds of those that are unaware.

Their message is simple, and their leaders know that acceptance of their false reality and rewritten history mezmorizes the mind and deadens it to everything but the power of their distructive goal.

These, as much as the Republican agenda are to be feared. For their leader's goal is to bring down all Western Civilization from the inside.

Dear Alternet, Thank you. This is an article that clearly states historical truth. And understanding the real truth has the power to direct our efforts.

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Um, it's 28, no make that 40, years too late.
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Posted by: CarlaWaters on Mar 19, 2009 9:11 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Good luck on reversing it though.

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The Fascists Are Still In Power - But Here's Some Good News
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Posted by: tony_opmoc on Mar 19, 2009 9:27 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Justice Secretary Jack Straw to be Accused on Torture in Parliamentary Inquiry


Craig Murray has got tremendous courage for standing up against torture - and losing his job as British Ambassador in the process.

As someone pointed out on his website

"We are with you in this.
You should apply for immediate 24/7 police protection.
This is no joke.
You are a state witness in one of the biggest racketeering cases of our time.
In the eye of a manufactured but deadly "War on Terror".
May your efforts lead to a speedy end of torture by our state agencies."

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Problem With Democracy Definition
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Posted by: sslyon on Mar 19, 2009 9:30 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There is a problem with this and most discussions regarding our Constitutional Democracy and that is the shift from the original intent. Originally it was intended to be of, by and for we (human) persons. However, in the 1890's, a misconstrued margin note by a court clerk was codified to include corporate entities as persons. The impetus for that change and all that has followed was provided by monied corporations, not human beings. Since that momentous but unheralded moment America has been on a slide to oblivion at the hands of Eisenhower's nemesis, the military industrial complex.

The ROOT CAUSE for our current misery and that of the Hitler reign is directly attributable to that fearsome, all-corrupting mechanism. Fortunately for Americans -and the world, we still have a Constitution and an organic communication medium that is capable of correcting that ROOT CAUSE PROBLEM. The ultimate question now is whether or not we'll shake ourselves out of slumber and get smart enough as a nation to organize and bring about the required change.

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Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
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Posted by: jkk on Mar 19, 2009 9:30 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The right talks about "democracts and socialism", but that scares me far less than "republicans and fascism"...

Dr. Lawrence Britt examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes and found 14 defining characteristics common to each.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause

4. Supremacy of the Military

5. Rampant Sexism

6. Controlled Mass Media

7. Obsession with National Security

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined

9. Corporate Power is Protected

10. Labor Power is Suppressed

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption

14. Fraudulent Elections

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Time out
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Posted by: willymack on Mar 19, 2009 9:53 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The neocon bastards who control the gang calling themselves "Repuplicans" are licking their wounds and analysing their catastrophic loss in the 2008 election. Despite their best efforts at rigging the last election, enough warning beforehand and the Obama landslide thawarted their machinations.
Now they're regrouping in the shadows, planning a more refined and sinister method of wresting control of our nation from our democratically elected President, Congress, and the Senate, while their stooges still in government fight a backguard battle of obstruction, obfuscation, and dirty lies.
THEY MUST NOT BE ALLOWED THEIR SANCTUARY TO PLOT FURTHER EVIL. Remember the bush years, folks, and demand prosecution of the evil bastards who got us into this deadly mess. Don't be distracted by the economy. While important, it pales in comparison to the heinous crimes of the bush gang. Tell the President, the Senate, and Congress we want the crooks in jail.
We can redo the economy along more egalitarian and humane lines once we set things aright.

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Shouldn't you be happy?
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Posted by: freedomordeath on Mar 19, 2009 9:54 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If the center of power shifts to China we can all be governed by the type of government Alternet readers want: Communism.
Republicans = Nazis?
Get a clue, start a dialogue you hateful people

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» RE: Shouldn't you be happy? Posted by: weathered
» RE: Shouldn't you get a clue? Posted by: Ghoulman
» RE: Shouldn't you get a clue? Posted by: weathered

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LABELS & AMERICA
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Posted by: pfm on Mar 19, 2009 10:09 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
For me two sentences extrapolated in this article in particular put into perspective contemporary American society. One is … Rage is rage. It is glandular and unseeing. Once catalyzed it is easy to turn on any subject. Two is … Free markets have become little more than a robotically-recited cultural catechism, a mindless mantra mumbled to mask the looting of the nation's resources.

We have chosen to educate ourselves and our youth with the fundamental ability to apply – labels – to everything, much like one applies a “band-aide” to a wound. And we have readily available “band-aides” to cover whatever wound RAGE uncovers. We are a nation of slogans robotically-recited, our collective cultural catechism a mindless mantra, so eloquently described by William Shakespeare in Macbeth… “full of sound and fury signifying nothing” … We recite but we are in most cases totally unaware of what we are reciting and totally oblivious to is meaning or effect.

America is in the moment – CHALLENGED – and we did not arrive at this point in time solely as a result of the policies and practices of any ONE political party or persuasion. The responsibility for where we find ourselves lies solely with that individual whose reflection you see when you look into a mirror – YOU and ME.

Americans have been weaned on the notion that … deception is honest disclosure … For at least the last 40 years we educate Americans to believe the corporation is the “holy-grail” and that government participation in our lives is bad and wrong. Our economic condition can not be laid solely at the feet of one political party as no matter their reputed political persuasion, they all fed at the same feed trough, and continue to do so today.

Americans know only what mass media repeatedly 24/7 “jinglistically” informs us is – TRUE – we lack the ability to even differentiate fact from fiction, let alone delineate what is true…? We respond like one of Pavlov’s experimental dogs and salivate when the politically correct – LABEL – of the day is presented.

Until “we” – that’s you and me – take back all the public airways and through a process, I freely admit I do not know the answer to, provide full, open, open DISCLOSURE about all issues we face … nothing will really change, just the labels we in the moment salivate over.

Paul F. Miller
striving to promote sustainable awareness

BLOG SITE NAME ... AUTHENTICALLY WIRED

BLOG SITE ADDRESS ... http://waterman99.wordpress.com/2009

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» RE: LABELS & AMERICA Posted by: opit

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Republican - not right winger
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Posted by: julipuck13 on Mar 19, 2009 10:10 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I find it interesting that everything is the Republican's fault. Carter and Clinton did no wrong???? Remember each president picks up the debit of the last president and when Regan took office inflation was the highest it had every been and interest rates were 21% but of course that was Regan's fault because he was a Republican. Instead of pointing fingers and prostelytizing you should be asking yourself - did you buy into the Wall Street hype and think you needed to buy buy buy and get rich quick? Did you go the easy and unethical way of making money? Are you actively involved in writing and calling your Congress staff? Remember that if the don't hear from you, they go their merry way. If you did then shame on you and the American people for living beyond their means and trying to live the good life at the expense of everyone else. Give me a break!!!! We all let it happen and we are all responsible.... but then it is always easier to point the finger and blame others than to take on some of the responsibility.

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The Democrats always prep America up for the return of the Republicans
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Posted by: logansafi on Mar 19, 2009 10:10 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sure, that's the job of the Democratic Party to prep the country up to return us eventually to the Republicans being in the White House once again. There's nothing new in that, and comparing this American 2 party con game to the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis is not necessarily very helpful or illustrative.

In imperialist countries, too, the racial upper crust of those who work often target the wrong people for their anger, choosing to stick with those who actually oppress them and to go after those who are most victimized by the ruling classes instead of those who actually weld power. Most of the American upper crust have long been well sold on the supposed benefits of sticking with and being part of the military-industrial-welfare complex.

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The new NAFTA Moment as a catalyst for a new Weimar Moment
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Posted by: Gregsdiary on Mar 19, 2009 10:16 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you define the "Weimar Moment" as a given individual's abandonment of public principle and interest for the sake of self-interest at a time when society suffers a moral vacuum and the eventual consequence of that individual's decision is a considerably more deeply self-interested public that in time becomes tolerant if not welcoming of a leader and party that rules primarily through the manipulation of that self-interest, then you could define our country's progression from Clinton to Bush Jr. as just such a "Weimar Moment"--albeit, in slow motion.

And if the actions of our current Democratic President are any indication, we're likely in for another "moment." Except this time, given the economic crisis and the breadth of the moral vacuum the consequence might be closer to those of Weimar and may not occur in slow-motion.

During the Clinton years, "post election polling in 1994 revealed that a major reason that Democratic voters stayed home and gave control of Congress to the Republicans was that they were "upset about NAFTA's passage and specifically about local representative's support of NAFTA" --Jim Naureckas Extra Magazine

I suspect Obama's NAFTA moment will be his "reform" of healthcare that sustains the profit-motive of the health insurance industry and its allies.

Like Clinton and NAFTA, Obama's gift to corporate America will be the kind that keeps on giving in the form of an ever worsening--in this case healthcare--crisis for non elites.

So the resulting "Weimar Moment" will be in large part created by Democrats like Clinton and Obama--to name just two--and not, as this essay implies--the failure of Americans in general to contribute and cooperate.

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Democrat versus Republican is an illusionary conflict.
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Posted by: rafaeltoral on Mar 19, 2009 10:16 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Used as a distraction to keep the masses ignorant of the real problems.

The main tenets of their policies do not differ any longer.

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I Hear It Every Day
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Posted by: edgar_michel on Mar 19, 2009 10:30 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I hear the Christian Right now foisting the devastated economy onto the Obama administration as if the last 8 years never existed. And the problem facing the United States is graver than that facing post World War I Germany in that at the core or the U.S. brand of fascism is tied to the religion of most of our fore fathers, Christianity, but now metamorphosed into an evangelical ideology of world domination and conquest. How do you discredit Christianity without offending the majority of Americans; your aunts, uncles, cousins, or brothers and sisters? Christianity is based on a myth that had no corroboration in historical accounts except the accounts of writers of the gospels themselves who were themselves conscripted by the Flavian family. So you have the dominant religion in the United States based on myth (Lies designed to promote Roman power and control over their conquered territories), working tirelessly to extend their control to the world, even though they cannot see that they are really eroding whatever control they had in the first place and taking an entire nation down in the process. And since their whole raison d' etre cannot stand the light of truth, they will fight with everything they have to avoid the exposure of their own bankrupt philosophy and loss of their easy life, afforded by the insular walls of their church.

Exactly how you get the Christian right to abandon their ideology and work cooperatively with everyone else, I don’t know. The Christian Right sees themselves in contest with all other ideologies and that they have to win at all costs or they will loose the trust of their following. Just look at how many Christian right churches practice Tai Kwan Do. They see themselves as preparing for the final fight against all infidels. Their kids are not allowed to be exposed to any information that is not vetted though the church and they go to their Tia Kwan Do lessons so that when they grow up they will be able to defeat Satan (people who read and studied independently in pursuit of less biased knowledge) in any incarnation he appears on earth. This is ongoing and pernicious.

How do you transform the Christian Right; because their lies are at the heart of the matter? How do you educate people, who have been brainwashed since they were infants to believe in impossible things, to understand the realities and their own mortality?

These questions have to be answered if we are going to move forward. We have to work together in order to rebuild the infrastructure of the republic. I say Republic here because that to me is the most important piece of political structure needed to limit corruption. Local control over local matters that don’t affect the greater body politic preserves diversity and makes it difficult for massive corruption to spread because it has to compromise thousands of bodies politic that make up the republic. I’m talking really local control here such as one valley, one watershed.

A multi level republic instead of a two level republic like the UNited States originally had, would make it more difficult for any entity to gain control of the whole system as the compartmentalization would be difficult to breach.

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The Supposed Worldwide Economic Collapse is a Manufactured Illusion
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Posted by: tony_opmoc on Mar 19, 2009 10:36 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sure it has very real effects in that people are losing their jobs and losing their homes and are becoming impoverished.

But no real wealth has been lost.

And anyway - who do we owe all this money to? Virtually every country in the World has massive debt. Who's the Main Man we owe it all to?

So many Billionaires have now become Millionaires - and many Millionaires are now heading for the Soup Kitchens

But their wealth was an illusion in the first place.

To give a simple example

Take a highly Profitable company that is providing products and services that people want to buy.

The top Shareholders in that company may have been worth Millions.

But the Millions were only realisable on an individual basis. One shareholder could for example find someone else to buy all his shares and turn them into cash.

But if "Confidence" is lost - all the shareholders will try to sell at the same time - but there will be no buyers. The value of the company will fall dramatically. Billions will be "lost" in value. But nothing will have changed. The company is still exactly the same - producing products and services that people want to buy.

But the loss of confidence then spreads. People become afraid of losing their jobs - and so stop buying products and services.

They then lose their jobs and sit at home doing nothing.

Because the company suddenly has no buyers for its products and services - it starts making dramatic losses instead of profits. The banks won't lend it any money - so it goes bust and everyone loses their job - and sits at home doing nothing.

This escalates further. Because no one is producing anything - doing useful work - then the Government is no longer receiving any tax revenues. The Government cannot afford to pay unemployment benefits - or provide Medical Care - or Distribute Food and Energy.

So we all sit at home and starve to death.

The entire situation has been artifically created - on purpose.

Its all part of the planned cull.

All completely unnecessary.

Money has only one useful purpose - and that is to motivate people to do useful work.

Those in Control of our Worldwide economic system have decided that we should all sit at home and do nothing.

Its good for the planet. We stop mining and polluting - except in our own home when the electricity fails and the sewage system stops working. The cholera will kill us if the scarcity of food and water doesn't first.

When we are down to about 1 Billion we can start again, turn the energy back on and go back to work.

The Whales will thank us and build back their numbers - and the eco-system of the World will be back in balance.

So stock up on tins of baked beans if you want to be one of the surviving 15%. The smell will deter people from stealing your stash of food and beans are good for your heart.

Or do you think this is all happenning by accident?

Tony

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KOOKS CAUSE BACKLASH 2010
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Posted by: reelman on Mar 19, 2009 10:54 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
PELOSI: DANGEROUS KOOK

This pseudo-catholic Frisco loon is now bettering even her kook level by saying the illegals having to face the fact they are illegals is “unAmerican”! As usual, dems trash their country as often as possible.
Her and her Party are dangerous to the country. Illegal means illegal. Laws are laws.
Just tell us, when did that change? Can we now pick which laws (congress/legislatures make) to obey?

Thousands of crimes by illegals do not count, billions in health care on our taxes do not count and megamillions of school dollars on illegals do not count.
Not a dime to secure our borders in the STIM…what does that tell you about democrat leadership?
Its all about future (dependent) voters, not what is best or common sense for the USA.
Same ole pandering dufus democrats.

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

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NOW we may face a fascist backlash?
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Posted by: lynmarenjensen on Mar 19, 2009 10:54 AM   
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What do you think we've been living under these past seven to eight years (at least since 9/11)?

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Fascists
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Posted by: remoran on Mar 19, 2009 10:56 AM   
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Obama's passivity is the killer here. If he had any guts, he would have abolished the Fed on the first day of his administration as this would have told the American people he meant business regarding change. Because he didn't, the ability of the right to seize power becomes possible, something totally avoidable as this fubar was avoidable had Gore been president and not Bush.

The monetary system was doomed to fail in any event (it would have happened later rather than sooner with Gore etc., etc.) because the system is predicated on debt, something that finally reaches a tipping point, before the system crashes as it now has.

The only way out of this mess is for Obama to take the gloves off and kick ass, something I feel won't happen based on how he has dealt with this disaster thus far.

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» RE: Fascists Posted by: EncinoM

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Dancing In The Malls.
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Posted by: melpol on Mar 19, 2009 11:31 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The U.S. is not only run by the richest but also by the best and brightest. A mass up rising by the pothole fillers of the nation can only last as long as their food stamp allotment. The nation is still the fairest in the world and as soon as the recession is over all Americans will be dancing in the malls.

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strawman?...
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Posted by: Annapurna1 on Mar 19, 2009 11:47 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
comparing the obama administration to weimar germany is a strawman argument at best..and a poor example as such...

however..the basic premise of the article is correct ..if obama cannot improve the economy in the time alotted.. then yes..a fascist state will take over...and the repugnicans are doing their damnedest to make sure thats the case...

but while the obama/weimar comparison may not be valid.. the same definitely cannot be said about their respective political opponents...and this time around it will make WW II look like piss in the bucket..should they be given that opportunity...

whether they get that opportunity depends largely on the economy..which recently has begun to show some signs of improvement...if this trend continues..the chances of a fascist takeover are greatly diminished...

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umm, dude...
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Posted by: hurricane hugo on Mar 19, 2009 1:01 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
THAT HAPPENED IN 1980.

#@!

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saying it's so does not necessarily make it so
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Posted by: u2r1 on Mar 19, 2009 1:07 PM   
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although facism is and has been lurking around the political hinterland for most of our history, this is so permeated with distortion and falsehood from start to finish that it is ultimately counterproductive in impressing the reader with anything except "oh well, here's some more ammo for O'Reilly and Co."

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what was it sinclair lewis wrote?...
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Posted by: particle61 on Mar 19, 2009 1:19 PM   
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..."it can't happen here"-

here is a link to the text of this prescient story in the second edition of www.redstateupdate.net -from May 2005 --
see the links of the week at the bottom left side of the page
hmmmm...
that edition also has an article on extraordinary renditions...still used as a tool by the new president in 2008

It can't happen here!

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Talk about Revisionist History.....
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Posted by: Patriot of the Republic on Mar 19, 2009 1:38 PM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm a conservative that enjoys reading this site once in awhile and this article finally got me to blog on....

Do you people on the left really think this is an legit article?

It's a total revisionist article, I think either the author is a liar or just ignorant of history.

Here is the truth, you can't draw contemporary divisions of "the right" and "the left" back to then. Hitler was no more a hard core righty than a hard core lefty, he started out as a national socialist. The left mistakenly looks at modern day white supremsists on the right links them with Hitler, while there is some idealogical likeness, Hitler was a socialist, do you here me.....a socialist. The nazi party before it was called the nazi party was the German Workers National Socialist party.

Guess who was the muscle for Hitler as he rose to power...? Gays. Hitler recruited gays to be his brutal muscle as he rose to power, then created the SS to kill most of the gays that helped him to power. It is well documented that he kept some gays in his higher ranks, most of whom were rapent homo's and pedifiles, for their military and tactical abilities.

Do you know what scares me more than Obama, Bush and Clinton....when I see all the people on both sides of the aisle who are so utterly ignorant of what is going on and all you guys can do engage in "the right is evil and stupid, and this, and that" and the right saying "the left are sick, degenerates, blah, blah, blah..."

Seek the truth, not this poppycock of an article. And you blame the right for being ignorant....

THE POWER WE AS A PEOPLE ALLOW THE GOVERNTMENT TO HAVE IS THE TRUE MEASURE OF HOW FREE WE ARE. THE MORE POWER THE GOVERNMENT HAS, THE LESS FREEDOM AND LIBERTY WE ALL HAVE, BLACK, WHITE, ASIAN, LIBERAL, CONSERVATIVE, ETC.

When will all of you wake up and understand the gift our Founding Fathers gave us with a Republic form of government. A Government with limited power and a system of checks and balances. That is freedom, that is liberty, not the path we all are on no matter if they have a "D" or "R" behind their names.

We are all being conned by both parties, for those of you who think socialism is the answer, shame on you, absolute shame on you. Facism, Socialism, Anarchy, Communism, Marxism, is all about varying degrees of government power, a power that the government will abuse, because they can.

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» RE: And you call yourself a "patriot" ? Get real. Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» RE: Ass! Hitler was a FASCIST not a socialist Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» just the government? Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: just the government? Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» RE: just the government? Posted by: aonghus36
» RE: just the government? Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» RE: just the government? Posted by: cplot
» Furthermore..... Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» Billy..... Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» CPLOT, THANKS Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» ZOLA, ZOLA Your the one that doesn't get it..... Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» Tony Posted by: Patriot of the Republic
» STELLABOO, GET THIS..... Posted by: Patriot of the Republic

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Blame not just the Republicans, but their converts
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Posted by: susanhathaway on Mar 19, 2009 2:37 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I agree with the bulk of the article, but the insistence on blaming only one political party for the horrifying collection of catastrophes we now face is simplistic. The Republican Party certainly is the face of right-wing-nuttiness, but it has sympathizers and enablers, notably (for just one example) the "Blue Dog" Democrats who are even now rallying around obstructionism for, apparently, no reason at all except to grab power for themselves.

Both parties are to blame for putting narrow corporate interests over all others for more than thirty years.

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Glandular Thought
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Posted by: Zeugitai on Mar 19, 2009 4:41 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
>> Rage is rage. It is glandular and unseeing. Once catalyzed it is easy to turn on any subject.

So is hope.

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Fascism in America
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Posted by: urthona12 on Mar 19, 2009 6:18 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Benjamin Franklin wrote that Americans secretly desired a despot, and that one day the U.S. Constitution would be meaningless. Eight years ago, voters gave Ben's prediction fuel and support.
The Republican Party is America's Taliban. The GOP has never shown too much intelligence by way of ideas and thoughts, but it has the uncanny ability to feed the fears and the despair that so often engulfs a country; in this case, it is ours.
Obama must stop this nonpartisanship, which has never yielded much in the past, except President Clinton's and Newt Gingrich's handshake. Obama must ignore the GOP; a filibuster would lynch the GOP: why must Obama spare GOP its just fate?
If Obama does not attack the GOP's stupidity and arrogance head-on, the next President might do what President Bush almost did: suspend the Constitution, halt all elections, and initiate Marshall Law.
We are in trouble.

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Fascism in Good Times
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Posted by: US Citizen on Mar 19, 2009 7:19 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Considering how close we came to a fascist regime in relatively good times under George W. Bush, it is not difficult to envision a fascist government in the US future. When George W. Bush willingly left office, we dodged a bullet. But people will forget that the economic collapse also occurred under George W. Bush after eight years of his regime.

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A little neutral....
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Posted by: Fuzzhead on Mar 19, 2009 8:47 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I think we all need to take a deep breathe and realize, no matter what your political affiliation, we are all the same species, genus and class. Also meaning, that it is indubitable that we all have similar strengths and weaknesses. The constant and extreme polarization of this country is what frightens me. Much like the protagonist and antagonist of any 1$ comic book. Somebody has to be on the side of good... but who decides what is good? Inevitably it is the reader... which is why some kids dress up like Batman for Halloween, and others prefer the shennanagins of the Joker, or Poison Ivy.

The point I'm getting at, is you could make very good connections and talking points about how the "left" is mirroring fascist tactics, just as much as the "right". Nazi youth brigades and the current administrations required youth service... Gasp!

Lets not delude ourselves into thinking that there is one way to freedom, because given the population of 200 million plus Americans, it's not only mathematically illogical, it's also a little dense.

A Constitutionalist.

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The Weimer Republic was simply a continuation...
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Posted by: Livemike on Mar 19, 2009 10:42 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
... of the bad policies of the "right wing" (who were of course much more left wing than most nations). And indeed when the "right wing" took over they continued the policies of the Weimer Republic, like massive spending and public works. And the economy still sucked. Hitler solved the unemployment problem the same way FDR did, conscript people. And that's the big trick, there is no possibility of a fascist backlash because the fascists have all the power now. Obama's plans for the bailout were just as fascist as Bush's (in fact I think they were the same). Obama's approach is simply fascism-(somewhat)lite. He will be more fascist in some ways, less so in others. It is simply not worth fighting over the difference, unless you intend to be the one giving out the goodies.

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Yes, but...
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Posted by: pjmax on Mar 19, 2009 11:26 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The article's history is oversimplified. When Ebert became the German chancellor, he made a deal with the army for its support of the Weimar republic. In return for being left intact, it would suppress leftist rebellions. As a result, Weimar governments were unable to restrain the army. A classic Faustian bargain. The collapse of the republic was caused as much by liberals' capitulation to the right as it was by rightists' undermining of it.
Why does this matter? Because so many progressives are so preoccupied with the right wing, they've forgotten about the Democrats' complicity; remember, the crucial legislation that led to the Wall St. meltdown was signed by Bill Clinton. Democrats are as corporatist and Islamophobic as Republicans. If America does turn full blown fascist, the Democrats' surrender will lead to it as much as Republicans' chicanery.

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Different Wings of the Same Bird
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Posted by: mcgoo on Mar 19, 2009 11:48 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
From "Tragedy and Hope" by Carroll Quigley;

"The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can throw the rascals out at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy. Then it should be possible to replace it, every four years if necessary, by the other party, which will be none of these things but will still pursue, with new vigor, approximately the same basic policies."

The new government is attempting to maintain the status quo by re-inflating the bubble and hoping that the economy will return to normal. Chris Martenson does a good job of tying the economy, energy and the environment issues together in his Crash Course, and concludes that the next 20 years will be nothing like the last 20 years.

Its not possible to continue business as usual. Exponentially increasing debt, depletion of national resources and degradation of the environment dooms us to certain failure, whoever is in charge.

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Where's the free market?
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Posted by: darrenlobo on Mar 20, 2009 4:42 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This article repeats the nonsense that the Republicans were about free markets. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bush was the biggest spender since Johnson. He increased, yes increased, regulation. He inflicted the first bailout & stimulus. Where's the free market? As usual, the left confuses pro business regulation with no regulation. There's a world of difference.

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Backlash?
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Posted by: knappster on Mar 20, 2009 5:23 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's not the possible backlash that worries me, it's the actual frontlash.

The differences between the New Deal, Mussolini's Italy and the Third Reich (and, for that matter, Stalin's USSR) were differences of degree, not differences of kind ... and the differences of degree would have been even smaller if it hadn't been for the resistance of the unions and the courts to FDR's insane labor conscription scheme.

To the extent that Obama patterns his administration's approach on the New Deal, it ain't the Republicans putting us on the road to fascism, it's the Democrats.

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» RE: Backlash? Posted by: Patriot of the Republic

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TEA PARTY SONG OF 2009
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Posted by: reelman on Mar 20, 2009 9:35 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
ALSO ON U-TUBE!
New song recognizes 'tea party' movement
An entertainer who proudly admits to being "an American Black Conservative" has written a song in honor of the new nationwide "tea party" movement protesting Washington's runaway spending. The "American Tea Party" starts out: "Mr. President! Your stimulus is sure to bust, It's just a socialistic scheme. The only thing it will do, Is kill the American Dream." Written and performed by Lloyd Marcus, the song is directed to President Obama.

The lyrics, copyright Zephyrus Music, are:

Mr President!
Your stimulus is sure to bust
Its just a socialistic scheme
The only thing it will do
Is kill the American Dream

You wanna take from achievers
Somehow you think that's fair.
And redistribute to those folks
Who won't get out of their easy chair.

We're havin' a tea party across this land
If you love this country
Come on and join our band
We're standin' up for freedom and liberty
Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain't free

So when they call you a racist cause you disagree
It just another of their dirty tricks to silence you and me.
I believe in the Constitution and all it stands for.
Anyone who tramples it should be booted out the door.

We're havin' a tea party across this land
If you love this country
Come on and join our band
We're standin' up for freedom and liberty
Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain't free

Now we're not advocating violence
That's what the so-called peace crowd do
We're talkin' peaceful protest to defend the red, white and blue

We gotta vote out these clowns who don't love the USA
Who stay up late losing sleep fearing what the French might say

We're havin' a tea party across this land
If you love this country
Come on and join our band
We're standin' up for freedom and liberty
Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain't free

We're havin' a tea party across this land
If you love this country
Come on and join our band
We're standin' up for freedom and liberty
Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain't free

Freedom ain't free
(Stand up for America)
Freedom ain't free
(Gotta take a stand)
Freedom ain't free
(Mr Obama)
Freedom ain't free
(we work hard for our money)
Freedom ain't free
(Don't give it away)
Freedom ain't free
(Save the day)
Freedom ain't free
(Don't go givin' it away)
Freedom ain't free
(It ain't gonna work)
Freedom ain't free
(Give back our freedom)
Freedom ain't free
(Give back our liberty)
Freedom ain't free
(I love my country)

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» RE: TEA PARTY SONG OF 2009 Posted by: Thessaly

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Fear mongering
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Posted by: binkhemi on Mar 20, 2009 1:53 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I skimmed the history lesson to avoid the bogus emotional buildup and found the author blaming our current situation on (gasp) Republicans. I am not one, but they are not solely to blame. The Dems and Repubs share equally in this debacle because neither side has any sort of coherence in their policies. Now, of course the Right will try to undermine and get back into power -- that is what people do. The Left undermined Bush with their often-false characterizations of his policies, and the act served them. This is the left-right march of history.

We must fear fascism not because of right-wingers, but because both Left and Right are expert at exploiting our fears in order to reduce our liberty. IF the author of this piece understands that, then he is clearly working for one of those two sides.

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Alternet is part of the problem - not the solution
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Posted by: barefeet on Mar 20, 2009 4:30 PM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Some points:

(1) ALTERNET'S FALSE SPIN ON THE START OF WWI

"And stoking resentment was easy to do. Just before the War ended, the military concocted its most sensational lie: the German army hadn't actually been defeated. It had been "stabbed in the back" by communists, traitors, and Jews. It was an easy lie to sell. It entwined an attack on an alien political ideology -- liberalism -- with the latent, pervasive myth of German racial superiority."

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.

What developed into WWI was a spat between rulers rather than any real dispute. Americans were not only largely uninterested in it but on balance more sympathetic to the Germans than to the English.

The Germans having come to their senses and knowing that England was essentially defeated proposed to the English to call the whole thing off Rather than occupy England. The English pride prevented them from agreeing to what the Germans proposed. With their knowledge that not only were they secretly ruled by International Judaism but the Americans were as well they concocted a simple one-page diplomatic memo to American Jews in which they promised to sponsor the Jews desire to move to "Zion" in then Palestine if the the English prevailed in their conflict with the Germans. It is known as the "Balfour Document." Don't be surprised if you haven't heard of this astounding document as it has lafgely been expunged from history books and NEVER is taught in schools. You can still find it on the web though even there it is altered.

The Balfour document was secretly carried to America and circulated to all of our media Jews with the clear implication that they could achieve Jewish expansion into the Middle East by using media to inflame Americans against the Germans and cause them to demand war against them. Within a few months that is exactly what happened and our "government could not hold us and our 911-like hatred for Germans. What ensued was WWI. the Germans were completely blind-sided by their own Jews. Before that the German Jews were welcome and high placed members of Germany society. After the total decimation of Germany
and the Germans found out what their own citizens had done to them the entire German nation rose up against the Jews and began to round them up for expulsion to Zion in the Middle East for which they had caused the Germans to pay so dearly for. What ensued was WWII.






rcibly d by (2) ALTERNET'S FALSE SPIN ON THE BUSH LEGACY.

"The failure of right wing policy and leadership over the past eight years, especially in matters economic, is comparable to Germany's right-wing failure in World War I. It is catastrophic, undeniable, and complete"



We here like to think that we "won" WWII, that is not the case. The Germans were at war with International Judaism and they won that war by dumping the seat of Jewish power into America.
The past eight years of right wing rulership of America has been another resounding success for International Judaism. We have largely ploughed the field for their rulership of the Middle East and guaranteed their holocaust of the the innocent people there. A significant increase of Jewish monetary rulership of America has been achieved and now the stage has been set by this deliberately-caused recession for a complete monetary takeover of our once proud country by repurchase of deflated securities from American's retirement savings.

America now has an accepting mind set about American Jews very much like that pre WWI Germany did about their Jews. Alternet is right about that comparison and the danger it portends if our economic destruction deepens and Americans get the wind of International Judaism's complicity and profit in it.


(continued on next post)

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» IncisiveOne Posted by: IncisiveOne

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Obama is the fascist, check his new laws!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: LillianB on Mar 20, 2009 7:38 PM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
In addition to being in bed with certain corporations and given 100K by AIG, Obama's new
Gun control laws EXEMPT all government employees in every agency and dept. (HR 45 section 801)), mandatory volunteer work and corps for kids (HR 1388)
This president is the definition of fascist.

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Unless
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Posted by: wormfarmer on Mar 20, 2009 8:15 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hamilton was wrong, we, the people, ARE intelligent enough to govern this country. Let's crack the whip and persuade through public outcry. I'll admit that Obama is ill prepared to roll up his sleeves, and the people he has surrounded himself with are the originators of this military / financial mess. I wish the solution were as simple as, "Spending our way out", but we spent our way in. "We the PEOPLE" should have more influence in the workings of OUR GOVERNMENT, we need a constructive government that adheres to common sense.
Heres hoping.

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THE BACKLASH AGAINST THE BACKLASH
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Posted by: nubianem on Mar 21, 2009 12:05 AM   
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Talk about 'backlash' has been promoted by some of the most dangerous and rabid propagandists on the 'public' airways.

Unfortunately, most of these propagandists who spew venom over the 'talk radio' am stations and the Faux-tounged news are children, grand children and actual people who were in Nazi Germany when the propaganda machine there unleashed their attack against Jews, Russians, Africans, Slavs, Brits, Americans, Jehova Witnesses, and a number of people around the world.

Today's propaganda machine led by the likes of Herr Rausch Limbugstein, Shorn Connity, Leeveen, O'really, Scarface-borough, the SLUDGE report, Missy Unkoolterberg, Jono Judas Goldbug and that nest -- HAVE THE SAME AGENDA IN MIND. These former German Khazar converts and their hateful propaganda is aimed at bringing disunity and conflict to America while these money-grubbers DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO GAIN RATINGS AND TO 'MADE-OFF' WITH TRILLIONS OF AMERICAN DOLLARS TO BUILD WALLS, SETTLEMENTS AND EMPIRES IN THE MIDDLE EAST.

Money Grubbers and made-offers bring about division and conflict to America under the false guise of being 'conservative,' or being anti-spending, or STANDING WITH NO SHAME AND TELLING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO 'LET THEM EAT CAKE,' while those who really love America and the WORKING, LOWER AND MIDDLE CLASSES ARE WORKING HARD TO MAINTAIN THE STRENGTH OF THIS NATION.

Hence when these propagandists TRY TO STIR UP GENOCIDE, DISTRUCTION AND CIVIL WAR by using the airways to predict 'backlash' as the toyed and played over the airways with the STOCK MARKET AND GAMBLED WITH AMERICA'S WEALTH, WHILE RIPPING OFF WORKING PEOPLE -- IT IS TIME TO TELL THE LIKES OF RAUSCH LIMBUG, SHORN CONNITY, LEEVEEN, O'REALLY AND THE OTHER DIVIDERS THAT IF THEY CAN'T CONTRIBUTE TO THE STABILITY AND UNITY OF AMERICA -- AT LEAST
The use of propaganda IS THE FIRST
STEP TO GENOCIDAL WARFARE (INCLUDING THE MASSIVE 'CONCENTRATION CAMPING' OF AMERICAN YOUTH) AND THE END OF SOME NATIONS.
One only has to go back to 2005 during Hurricane Katrina, when the MEDIA SPREAD THE RACIST LIE ABOUT THINGS THAT DID NOT HAPPEN IN NEW ORLEANS DURING THE FLOOD THERE. Yet, the persons with political power gave the order to mow down 'looters' leading to the massacre of about 200 people by vigilantes, who boasted about their activities on Danish Television ( http://www.sfbayview.com ).


So, when Judases and Collaborators LIke Herr Rausch Limbugstein, Shorn Connity, Leeveen, and that nest of bile spewers keep trying to provoke civil war and conflict int the United States -- they are playing with fire. THEY ARE ENGAGED IN THE MOST EVIL SCHEME SINCE A BELGIUM USED THE 'PUBLIC AIRWAYS' AND RADIO STATIONS IN RWANDA TO PROVOKE GENOCIDE.


Nations decide to arm themselves with nuclear defense and communities and groups of people HAVE A PARANOID MENTALITY AND WILL TAKE DOWN THE EARTH IF THEY ARE EVER THREATENED WITH GENOCIDE (as we clearly see in the Middle East), we have to start asking WHY DO THE SAME PUBLIC THAT IS PRONE TO TURN ON THEMSELVES AT THE BRAINWASHING PROPAGANDA OF HERR RAUSCH LIMBUGSTEIN, SHORN CONNITY, LEEVEEN, MKE SAVARAGE, O'REALLY AND THAT INFESTED MACHINE?

The next time any nation tries to allow the atrocities and genocide that occur in Nazi Germany to occur in their midst, because TALK-SHOW PROPAGANDISTS AND CABLE TV BILE SPEWERS HATE AMERICA SO MUCH THAT THEY ARE CALLING FOR DIVINE RETRIBUTION, IT IS TIME TO BRING BACK THE 'FAIRNESS DOCTRINE' SO GENOCIDISTS CANNOT CONTINUE TO USE THE 'PUBLIC' AIRWAYS TO BRING ABOUT THE DISTRUCTION OF AMERICA.

The more people like those on TALK RADIO AND CABLE TV CONTINUE TO PROVOKE DISTRUCTION -- THE MORE NATIONS AROUND THE WORLD WILL OPT FOR THE NUKE OPTION.

http://blackmalepowermovement.forumsland.com

http://www.myspace.com/sexyaabooksculture

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Fascist Backlash!!??
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Posted by: sscoop4 on Mar 21, 2009 3:03 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Haven't we been in a state "Fascist Backlash" for the last 25 years. Neo-Fascists have been attacking our Democracy since Nixon. Like termites, they have been working to undermine the People's Rights since Ronnie took office. We just have to stand up with Obama and reclaim our Rights, and we will!! FICA taxes on every cent of income, period. We'll retire the debt in 5 years. Watch the Fascist backlash then!!

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» RE: Fascist Backlash!!?? Posted by: IncisiveOne

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Fascism will come to America?
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Posted by: davidg on Mar 21, 2009 4:09 PM   
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It arrived long ago. Operation paperclip; US Policies in Latin America, Iran 1953, School of the Americas, Read Stephen Kinzer's books, McCarthyism, Boshie scare after WW I, etc etc etc. The ability to dissent has been protected admittedly, but now with the Patriot Act etc.????? The fascist elements have been alive and well but now are becoming dominant. Too bad schools don't teacher history. Catechism is so limiting.

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Fascism is the lies. Nazism is the threats.
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Posted by: archives@uwyo.edu on Mar 21, 2009 5:06 PM   
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Basically the right-wing is nothing but a bunch of liars and bullies. They feed on every human weakness, especially fear and anger. The only real answer is a habitual hatred.

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Sieg Heil, Amerika !
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Posted by: IncisiveOne on Mar 21, 2009 7:41 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Excellent article, and chillingly predictive. The undermining of the Obama era has already started. Blaming the Republican destruction of the country on the Democrats, started before the election campaign got into full swing.

This can only happen in a land of imbeciles, ignorant of the facts, which the established business has ensured, by control of the media (just like the Weimar Republic and Hitler, once he became Chancellor). America is ripe for anarchy, but not like the revolutions which were moved by informed people, but by two polarised groups (the ignorant, controlled imbeciles "sacrificing" themselves for der Amerikan Weg und der informed, the pinkos and lefties who read news from the rest of the world).

No, in the end, the established business forces will Make Sure they control the outcomes. It will be "unAmerikan" to believe in free speech or democracy, to read the InterNet; it will be the Duty of Every freedom-lovin' American to watch ONLY der Zeitung on der TV, and to kill unAmerikans.

Land of the free-to-watch-the-censored-news, programmed imbecile. Home of the brave-to-sacrifice-their-lives for Halihurton and Backwater.

It is just a matter of time before the establishment assasinates Obama. Just like J F Kennedy.

Like another poster said: Keep em dumb, keep em hungry for work, keep em in fear, and keep em praying.

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» Dismantle AIPAC Posted by: weathered
» RE: Sieg Heil, Amerika ! Posted by: Lilly

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THIS IS NOT A "RISK"
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Posted by: zyclop on Mar 22, 2009 1:08 PM   
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it is a fact.

The "bosses" are working on it already.

BEWARE !!!

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OBAMA: REMEMBER THESE LINES
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Posted by: reelman on Mar 22, 2009 7:14 PM   
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“Run along and tell your Xerxes (aka Obama) he faces free men here, not slaves…
“this is where we hold them, this is where we fight”…
“the world will remember that few stood against many”
—– from the great movie “300″.

http://conservablogs.com/theconservativecrawfish

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"Does America Face the Risk of a Fascist Backlash" by Robert Freeman.
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Posted by: XXXXXX on Mar 22, 2009 8:05 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
With this article Freeman recounts some interesting history about the Weimar Republic in Germany and the rise of fascism in Germany. Also, in this article he is very realistic about the decline of American economic and military power. Unfortunately, in this article, he is way behind the curve of recent historic events when it comes to the rise of fascism in America. The rise of fascism in America has already happened. The fascist Bush regime, supported by the pro-fascist factions in both major political parties, destroyed our republic with its democratic political process, the rule of law, our civil rights, and the separation of church and state. They replaced it with our present de facto fascist state. In addition, they went one enormous step further. That enormous step was they created all of the legislation required to impose a fascist military/police state the moment they think a fascist military/police state is required to secure the economic and political power of the pro-fascist capitalist power structure.

Obviously, what escaped Freeman's attention is the rise of fascism in America took an entirely different path than the rise of fascism in Germany. Also, it is an entirely different form of fascism.

What happened is the pro-fascist capitalists and their pro-fascist corporations simply bought easily corrupted pro-fascist politicians that willingly destroyed our republic and replaced it with our present de facto fascist state. No support from, or violence by, an unemployed and disillusioned working class was necessary.

The American form of the fascist state is even more interesting. It avoids a destructive violent power struggle between competing fascist factions by retaining a relic of the republic. That relic is our perverted democratic political process. In our perverted democratic political process the pro-fascist faction in the capitalist class that can literally buy the most pro-fascist politicians wins. As a result, Congress simply is the arena wherein the pro-fascist factions in the capitalist class decide, via the application of money, which pro-fascist faction rules at any particular point in time.

The creation of the fascist state took place so smoothly that most Americans are completely unaware what took place. Obviously, this includes Robert Freeman.

John P. Stoltenberg, P.E.
N8362 State Highway 67
P.O. Box 596
Elkhart Lake, WI
53020-0596
920-876-2184
jpstolten@verizon.net

PS #1:
Once again, the original definition of fascism by the Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile is as follows: Fascism, a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.

Once again, Giovanni Gentile's definition of fascism was the source for the definition of fascism in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language which is as follows: Fascism, a philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism.

Once again, the definition of fascist in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language is as follows: Fascist, a person who advocates or practices fascism.

PS#2: The beauty of these two definitions of fascism is they directly tie fascism with its creator which is capitalism.

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Obama IS the fascist backlash, dummies
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Posted by: xbj on Mar 23, 2009 7:34 AM   
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Wall street and Big Bank bailouts... what more proof do you need?

No one does Fascism more overtly and poorly and in your face than the Repugs, and no one does it better than the Chicago mob "Democrats".

You wished for it; you pushed for it; you worked for it; now choke on it.

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fascism as a working principle
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Posted by: zyclop on Mar 23, 2009 10:12 AM   
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when I posted I forgot to include the most important ingredient in every dictatorship running of a country.
The tool in question is "keep the little minds of the sheeple busy". Already the Romans applied "panem et circenses".
In the olden times you needed a circus and lions and christians.
Today it has gotten a lot cheaper. A lot of TV sets and some dumb "reality tv show". That keeps them happy AND prevents thinking.
This is the main ingredient that is needed. And as everyone can see: it works.

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Please sign Petition to Prosecute Bush/Cheney & Forward to all on your lists
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Posted by: JohnHKennedy Denver CO on Mar 24, 2009 5:10 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
One of the best articles I've read on the subject.

If we do not prosecute those in the Bush Administration that brought us to this low state we are guaranteeing a very bad future for our country.

Unless Obama's statement that
“no one is above the law” is a lie,

Obama must appoint a Special Prosecutor
for Bush, Cheney and the appointee lawyers that advocated Torture, violated many Federal Laws, our Constitution & the Geneva Convention on Torture.

Sign The Petition To Prosecute Them
at ANGRYVoters DOT ORG

ANGRYVoters.Org

Over 63,000 have signed, JOIN THEM.

PROSECUTION-The Only Tool We Have To Stop The Right

USE IT!

.

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Hmm, well..
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Posted by: juliestevenson23 on Mar 24, 2009 1:25 PM   
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I don't believe so, but this is too strangely familiar.. I'm following you on a ton of your points.. Maybe I just don't want it to be true?

Scary thoughts man..

- Julie, consultant for Credit Report

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There are certain differences
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Posted by: nechayev on Mar 25, 2009 12:14 AM   
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Overall a well-written history and well-constructed comparison, but there are certain differences in historical experience that may point in more optimistic directions. Germany had the experience of being a unified country for a while in the middle ages. That changed after the Thirty Years War of the seventeenth century, which was perhaps even more devastating to the country than what they sometimes call the Second Thirty Year War of the twentieth century. Germany was fragmented, quite by design, into dozens of small provinces and city-states, each with its own petty noble in charge, and it wasn't until Bismarck in the nineteenth century that the German people even began to have any experience with self-government and responsibility on the national scale, and were quite late in the game of industrialization, as were Russia and Japan, two other countries that had similar political growing pains. Germans had obedience drilled into them for hundreds of years in order to survive being powerless. Our historical experience is somewhat different. It's been a long time since I studied European history but we haven't been nearly as politically shattered, and subsequently brainwashed, as were the Germans for hundreds of years.

Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate in economics in 1998, had a piece in the Financial Times last week where he said of Adam Smith: "Smith was not only a defender of the role of the state in doing things that the market might fail to do, such as universal education and poverty relief (he also wanted greater freedom for the state-supported indigent than the Poor Laws of his day provided); he argued, in general, for institutional choices to fit the problems that arise rather than anchoring institutions to some fixed formula, such as leaving things to the market."

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Lib Friends Right On
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Posted by: reelman on Mar 25, 2009 7:26 AM   
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I have to admit it. My Liberal friends were right.

They told me if I voted for McCain, the nation's hope would deteriorate, and sure enough there has been a 20 point drop in the Consumer Confidence Index since the election, reaching a lower point than any time during the Bush administration.

They told me if I voted for McCain, the US would become more deeply embroiled in the Middle East, and sure enough tens of thousands of additional troops are scheduled to be deployed into Afghanistan .

They told me if I voted for McCain, that the economy would get worse and sure enough unemployment is approaching 8.8% and the new stimulus packages implemented recently have sent the stock market lower than at any time since 9-11.

They told me if I voted for McCain, we would see more "crooks" in high ranking positions in Federal government and sure enough, several recent cabinet nominees and Senate appointments revealed resumes of bribery and tax fraud.

Well, I ignored my Democrat friends in November and voted for McCain. And they were right... many of their predictions have come true.

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OBAMAS LESS THAN 1 PERCENT TO CHARITY
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Posted by: reelman on Mar 25, 2009 9:40 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sounds like a liberal to me...the Obamas made hundreds of thousands in 2008 and gave under 1% to charity...
so much for the democrat couple that wants YOU to help, you to sacrifice, you to pay more taxes...

you pathetic suckered O-zero voters are so full of Kool-Aid.
What a cold greedy couple acting like they are not!!!

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what happened
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Posted by: crysun2007 on Mar 25, 2009 10:18 PM   
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Convert DVD to iTouch

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False polarizing
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Posted by: Kasper on Mar 30, 2009 2:40 PM   
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The following list is of laws most people now agree to be the ones that de-regulated the banking industry and brought about our present situation. They started as far back as 1980. Problem is they show an equal responsibility and acceptance by both Rep and Dem puppets to the real oligarchy, the oligarchy that is apolitical, neither right nor left:

Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980. Sponsored by Democrat Rep. Fernand St. Germain (D-RI.), passed in the House 367-39, passed in the Senate 76-9, and was signed into law by Jimmy Carter.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 was introduced by three Republicans, Gramm, Leach, and Bliley. It repealed the wall that had been put up in the Great Depression, a wall that kept investment banks separate from commercial banks, separate from insurance firms and so on. Yes, this was introduced by three Republicans. However, but passed the Senate by a vote of 90-8 with 38 Democrats saying "Yea"; it passed in the House 362-57 with 153 Democrats saying "Yea".

To be more specific, in the Senate this bill was supported by high-profile Democrats such as Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Robert Byrd, Tom Daschle, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Diane Feinstein, Ernest Hollings, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Mary Landrieu, Pat Leahy, Carl Levin, Joe Lieberman, Daniel Moynihan, Harry Reid, Paul Sarbanes, and Chuck Schumer.

Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982.


From Wikipedia: Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000
The act has been cited as a public-policy decision significantly contributing to Enron's bankruptcy in 2001 and the much broader liquidity crisis of September 2008 that led to the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers and emergency Federal Reserve Bank loans to American International Group and to the creation of the U.S. Emergency Economic Stabilization fund.

Passed in the House
Republican
Yeas-133
Nays-51 38

Democratic
Yeas-157
Nays-9 42

Independent Yeas-2

TOTALS Yeas 292 Nays-60 Not Voting-80

In the Senate it was passed by Unanimous Consent and signed by Clinton.

So, here you have an article which implores it's readers to allow anything this new 'administration of Change' wants, because they are fighting pure Fascist evil responsible for our economic problems. But instead --- our true enemies turns out to be those who simply speak from 'glandular' hate and don't research their assumptions engendering even more blind hate.

So ask yourself who is the enemy? Maybe it's the very one directing your anger away from the true oligarchy with the polarizing, "he went that'a'way" finger! The one pointing to the bad guy who isn't there and never was there while letting the real bad guys get away!

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tyeah,
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Posted by: digoo on Apr 6, 2009 11:10 PM   
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Alternet Comments:

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The article is chillingly possible for America!
[Report this comment]
Posted by: Jay Randal on Mar 19, 2009 12:21 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I am too tired to write this at 3:00 am, but the article is basically correct. The extreme far-right GOPers can regain power in 2012. They can do it by painting Obama as a Wall Street stooge. Unfortunately Barack does act like a stooge already. If he fails to become a new FDR, then a Hitlerian Republican could become prez in 2012.

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» MeinGopKamp Posted by: wallisp

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Obama's Incrementalism and Intransigence Could Be Our Demise
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Posted by: mmckinl on Mar 19, 2009 12:36 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obama's failure to take the lead on the issues could well spell his failure and a severe right wing shift for the country.

Obama ...

~ Has left the reform and restructuring of the banks to the very Wall Street crowd that perpetrated the disaster to their own profit.

~ Has said little and done less about War Crimes and Torture .... Where are the investigations? Is He using Bush's template of GWOT going forward?

~ Continues to capitulate to the health care and pharma industries.

~ Has said little and done less about Palestine and the Israelis.

~ Has not acknowledged the violations of civil rights of the past 8 years.

Obama's strategy of "consensus" instead of leadership will be undermined and attacked at every turn, by every interest group through their bought and paid for Congress. His popularity ratings are already slipping.

Unless Obama takes on a bold program of economic and social change towards a more egalitarian future and exposes the civil rights violations, war crimes and financial crimes with broad and sweeping investigations it will be as if the last 8 years were not an aberration but the prelude to our much darker future.

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» RE: good for you pfgetty. Posted by: AngryWhiteFemale
» RE: As long as 9/11 remains an open wound Posted by: tim_s_eb@yahoo.com
» YES. Posted by: pfgetty

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Whatever
[Report this comment]
Posted by: DivadNhoj1981 on Mar 19, 2009 12:52 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Right has messed up terribly to the point it can't even pay me to join them.

Didn't any of you listen to Obama's Election Victory speech in which he said there are no quick fixes? The problems at America's doorstep are results of King George IV's poor, pathetic attempt at leadership. There are so many of them it may take years, even centuries to undo the hideous damage.

I'd rather here the truth right away than live an eight-year lie.

Also, I find it funny how some Americans act like the sky is falling whenever the Obama White House commits an honest mistake. Must be cozy in that glass house, huh?

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» Rahm Israel Emanuel is hardly Posted by: weathered
» RE: Whatever Posted by: Spot
» RE: Whatever Will Be Will Be? Posted by: americansheep
» Tom Ridge? Posted by: LeftWright

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obama is not an alternative to neoliberal poltics
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Posted by: Spot on Mar 19, 2009 1:51 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
we need not wait until 2012 for a right-wing government. for all intents and purposes we have one right now.

the military engagements aren't yet brought to a end, promises to close the war in iraq have been proven empty by obama's continual retreat from the progressive/left community's demands.

economically, the foxes are still running the hen house. watching barney frank and other wall street apologists speak from their offices and rotundas as if they weren't behind the wheel the entire time just sickens me. the fact that there's a d instead of an r by their name on fox news doesn't fool me, and it shouldn't fool you. a rich man still sits higher on his wallet than a poor man can stand, and these reps have unparalleled job security and 6-figure salaries.

"a new era of fiscal responsibility" is obamaspeak for "open wide john q. foodstamps, here comes drastic cuts to social services". there isn't any money, and the only reason we can keep spending it is because if the economy stops now, the whole 20th century disappears. hope is better than fear, but it's not as good as food.

a truly progressive government wouldn't need to be continually chastened by its constituents. a real socialist government would have the goals of the lower classes unflinchingly displayed at the forefront of its ideology. if obama really wanted to move to the left, he wouldn't be investing his time and power into organizing with the right-wing opposition to create a top-down system of control over what remains of a tattered economy.

it's not incrementalism, it's not intransigence. obama never was what we elected him to be. as the premise of the article makes clear, he has until 2011 to prove himself capable of being the change we need™, but there's no reason at all that working (and ex-working) people owe him their loyalty. i hope he can become what we need him to be, but if he fails i will have no problem throwing him under the bus for an actual progressive alternative.

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The Bush II administration as a botched fascist takeover
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Posted by: Perry Logan on Mar 19, 2009 2:38 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I take heart in the fact that today's Republicans lack the balls and brains of real Nazis. :)

Naomi's Wolfe's The End of America makes it clear that Bush II was a botched fascist takeover.

As Wolfe demonstrates, the Bush gang implemented every single element of a totalitarian goverment--invoke a terrifying enemy; create a gulag where torture is practised; set up a domestic surveillance system' create a lawless paramilitary; rig the elections, etc.

That was the last eight years. The only missing element was the intelligence and courage to bring the job off. Now that they have alienated the entire world, the chance of a far-left dictatorship seems much greater than the chance for fascism.

Video of me Forgiving the Neocons (or trying to).

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» Dismantle AIPAC Posted by: weathered
» Dismantle Israel Posted by: thornwolf
» RE: Dismantle Israel Posted by: Javan
» Botched? Posted by: cplot
» RE: Botched? Posted by: Spot
» The only missing element Posted by: kegbot1

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Fascism
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Posted by: cplot on Mar 19, 2009 2:42 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Ironic that an article about avoiding the NAZI road to fascism is using overblown statistics about America's liabilities ($60 billion?) and lamenting the end of Western glory (“But failure now by the U.S. will shift that center once again, from the United States to China, out of the western world where it has resided for the past 500 years”). Aren't these misdirections participating in the same fascist rhetoric the left wants to avoid? Is our problem that China may ascend to World dominance or that fascists US nationals are robbing us blind? The finance industry, the military industry, the prison industry and the medical industry are all treating US citizens as their own private piggy banks: slamming us open with hammers and extracting every bit of value out of us. And you think the problem is that the Chinese are gaining ground and that the West is losing its destined superiority?

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» RE: Fascism Posted by: Spot
» RE: Fascism Posted by: MT512
» RE: Fascism Posted by: cplot
» RE: Fascism Posted by: kjtvc

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Don't Forget the Impact of Printing Money
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Posted by: davidhhahn on Mar 19, 2009 3:29 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It was not just the debt from war and reparations, it was the massive devaluation in money (or inflation of prices) that was the real cause of panic, and hence, Fascist opportunity in Germany.

Print Reichsmarks at an unprecendented speed allowed the economy to collapse. Hitler seized the opportunity implementing price controls, government work, and heavy federal involvement in the economy. The "free market" was killed off and a stable money supply gave way to rationing and government mandates.

Now, just in the last few days the Federal Reserve has announce a new TALF program that will inflate the money supply by $1 Trillion and announced today that they will buy more government securities to inflate the money supply by another $1 Trillion.

This will lead to inflation and, we hope not, but likely hyper-inflation.

That is what we need to be careful of and the Obama administration is in charge now. They are doing some of this by fiat, no legislation, no right wing trying to block them. Obama is doing it...and he may not know what he is doing.

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Forget far right "GOP"ers
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Posted by: johnwinthrop on Mar 19, 2009 4:25 AM   
Current rating: 2    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
People of all walks of life, backgrounds, regions, and neighborhoods are fed up. fedup with chaos. things just happen. oil prices. schools suck. paychecks shrunk by taxes and few visible public services(cops, roads?).
obama shoveling trillions to incompetent bankers and mortgage swindlers and this is called stimulus. immigration laws ignored, americans out of work, 711s full of employed nonenglish speakers on their way to work at 6am.

we didn't get to vote on this. they shipped the jobs overseas and all the parties and leaders went along. towns and cities died. english is spoken all around the world but less so in america. the english that is spoken is corrupted by racist hip hop that is a plan to crush what's left of freedom blacks won in the sixties. our colleges suck; most are voke schools with incompentent writers and math practicioners getting degrees in business and communications. they expect to start at seventy grand plus per year.and all those lawyers graduating ever more law schools. can anyone in American build a bridge. who will use the stimulus money to DO anything? More immigrants from India?

if a Leader appears to impose order, this constitution and weak minded expectation society is toast. bye affirmative action. bye immigrants. by informal slovenly run schools. hello single sex education and goodbye hollywood run for the painted adolescents.

lot of veterans coming home. they can shoot. they believe they fought for america. not the america that wants a handout for doing nothing and sticking an ipod in one ear and typing a text message in broken English in a classroom or driving.

Nationalism always wins. Security always wins. Crime will go up as obama promotes a something for nothing society.

our hitler will look unlike hitler. maybe a black woman?

but order is the common key.

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» Some good points. Posted by: Hechicera
» English is the language of America Posted by: johnwinthrop

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Repug Base only Comprehends Short Slogans
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Posted by: Purple Girl on Mar 19, 2009 4:32 AM   
Current rating: 3    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
so it is time we stop thinking they will comprehend big concepts by explaining them at length. Repugs have acted like the foot soldiers of the Corps, aka the RED COATS for the Logo'ed Family Crests.
Most 'liberals' have known this for decades- 'trickle Down'= Feudalistic cast system.Siphoning an dpilferring from the prodcution of th eSerf class to support the lavish life styles of the elite.
They have controlled laws and jurisprudence through lobbyists- granting Rights and priviledges to the monarchial logos.They have instigated wars to further their wealth and further plunder the coffers.
Worse Yet is the fact the Religious 'Right' has become the New Vatican- Deseminating and legislating morality and adherence.
So we need to KISS
Republican= Red Coat
Evangelicals= The Vatican
Unfortunaltely as they hae proven with their mass Hyteria over 'drill babay Drill' they may not be able to explain the slogan entirely- but they'll get the drift.
Jesus how much lead base paint did the Repugs and their base eat when they were kids- are they continuing to use this self inflected agent for mental retardation via the Chinese produced Toys Too?They are Not the Sharpest Tools in the Shed- we need to dumb it down if we expect them to understand the reality of what has happened to our country which was founded on the ideology that Our Form of Gov't would be 'for the people and By the people', as was our Free market. Not for the Corps and By the Corps- Or any church.

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Of Carts and Horses
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Posted by: talkville on Mar 19, 2009 4:53 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Fascism and fascist forms, in their social, economic and political dimensions have already largely succeeded, on this higher and more globalized stage, since the days of Nixon, straight through to the culmination, consolidation and implementation in largely finished forms brought to us courtesy of the Bush-Cheney Regime. With the "Global War on Terror" replacing "Communism" in foreign policies as well as the "Patriot Acts" and the consolidation of military and police powers in the domestic area within the "Homeland Security" apparatus, the Corporate-State has achieved the complete sub-ordination of all the people, individually as well as collectively, under its thumb. As it developed through WWI and WWII, it has always been one aim: Save Capitalism, which chugging and sputtering and yet in continual decline and/or stagnation returns again and again, in shorter cycles of "boom and bust and bubbles" to increasingly bring benefits available to ever diminishing numbers of capitalists and miseries to an ever expanding number of workers, small-business owners, independent craftsmen, professionals, etc. The banner is always: Save Capitalism,by any and all means necessary -- the private ownership of the means and control of production and finance. If they can't enslave by Wage, they will do so by Debt.

Stalin and the Bureaucratic Stalinism of those days did much also to bring about the debacle that became WWII and the Interwar developments. He, too, knew about the Privileges available to the Few by belonging to the Elites in Power.

It is not a "back-lash" by Fascists that needs to be explained; it is the strange quiescence, acceptance and resignation to the developments in society and culture, economics and politics that step by step consolidated and constructed precisely the Corporate-State as we now all are experiencing and which is carefully kept in place by the immense expansion of policing and surveillance which we all must endure in every single aspect of our lives. All the elements are in place for implementation of Fascist Authority if it is determined to be necessary.

As long as the problem is posed in the context of "saving capitalism", giving it the ultimate priority, fascism will not remain in the realm of the possible; it'll be not only the likely but the actual method and program implemented to accomplish that Salvage.

We are already within what this article so ably describes with regard to the past; except at a scale and stage immensely more worrying and precarious for the vast majorities of this earth's populations, including our own. I can only hope we've learned a bit since those days that culminated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There are still those who remember... .

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» RE: Of Carts and Horses Posted by: sunnywater

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Propaganda History = FASCIST FABLES
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Posted by: Mister_PsyOps on Mar 19, 2009 4:54 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The story above is so wrong on so many levels I thought I’d address some bedrock basics.

The “Great War” WW 1 was cooked lock stock and barrel by western oligarchs (J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, etc). Germany sued for peace well before the end of the madness and was turned down. Flat. The war was too profitable. Hitler's Germany in ashes after WW1 could have done NOTHING without funding. Hitler's FASCIST Germany was bankrolled by the same monopoly oligarchs that promoted WW1 and the Bolshevik Coup (not "Revolution") in Russia.

Wall Street and the Bolshevik "Revolution"

It's tragically odd but nobody at the corporate MSM or “education” establishment asks the most basic question: how could Germany that was a broken trash heap of a wasteland after WW1 come to become the most potent world power on the globe in barely a decade?

Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler

It took many tens of billions of dollars to fund Germany’s war machine (trillions by current standards). And virtually all of that blood money cash came from American and British FASCISTS who loved the idea of a Hitler they thought they could control. Of course their plans backfired. After a certain point, Hitler stopped taking orders and would not even take robber baron money. Germany was transformed in months to be run as an ultra-efficient barter economy that rejected the debt based global banking system controlled by people like J.P. Morgan, J.D. Rockefeller and N.M. Rothschild and sons. Some paranoid sociopath dictators do have enemies and Hitler picked the very worst of the worst. Fascist bankers that ran the U.S. and Britain could not abide a rebel Fascist they could not control.

So it was freeloading corporate Fascism against Hitler’s Fascism. Mad sociopath that he was, Hitler might have won if he’d been more patient. But with the entire west run by monopoly oligarchs against Hitler, and with Russia driven to counter-attack Germany – the deck was completely stacked against him.

The old “right” vs “left” dialectic is the most shallow and naïve lie ever told.

Control the money and you control everything else that matters. All sides have been rigged, extorted and shaken down by the same power for hundreds of years now. It keeps the “masses” occupied and blinded as to who and what actually pulls the strings. And the red herring folly of pointing the finger at “rightwing” and “leftwing” actors makes for tremendous profits generated by banking debt. As ex-Governor Jesse Ventura has said, Washington is no more real than WWE wrestling. It’s an expensive runway farce. Blood money war and Ponzi scheme debt based banking (“Federal Reserve” Corp that is not federal and has zero reserves) is the most profitable business on earth. Always has been.


Fascism
any movement, tendency, or ideology that favors dictatorial government, centralized control of private enterprise, repression of all opposition, and extreme nationalism
Encarta® World English Dictionary ©

Democracy
the free and equal right of every person to participate in a system of government, often practiced by electing representatives of the people by the people (republic)
Encarta® World English Dictionary ©

Mussolini coined Fascism as the merger of corporate and state power with corporate power at command. It doesn’t take a genius to know which brand of government owns the Washington-MSM circus.

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» RE: No He Wasn't ... Exactly Posted by: edgar_michel
» Sources. Posted by: GuitarBill
» Idiotic Posted by: GuitarBill
» cplot didn't debunk anything Posted by: GuitarBill
» True enough . . . Posted by: Scientz
» Aren't you clever . . . Posted by: dustdevil
» Yes, I am clever. Posted by: GuitarBill
» Really, dustdevil? Posted by: Scientz
» You're sorry alright Posted by: GuitarBill
» PointMan, AKA, Loser . . . Posted by: Scientz
» More non-responses. Posted by: Scientz

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why not push for secure possession of your primary residence? this would reduce the insecurity
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Posted by: Suzon on Mar 19, 2009 5:02 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that drives the rich to try to pile up more and more money and the fear that makes the rest of us tremble.

What do the rich and the poor have in common? Nightmares! We have lived in systems of government in which the penalties for being poor are harsh, the ultimate spending years on death row before a painful execution. Remember that English kings and queens have been locked up and beheaded--no one is safe. Hanging, drawing and quartering (while alive) wasn't outlawed until the 19th century.

I value Obama's demeanor. We need someone calming at the helm. Yes, I believe that he doesn't have much control at the moment and maybe he is more conservative than I would like to think, but what on earth would we be experiencing with McCain and Palin?

Yes, we need to be a counterforce to the machine, but remember that despite all the lies about Obama's birth and religion and our history of racism, we did elect this guy--and more overwhelmingly than the official numbers reported.

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» G.O.P.? Posted by: robert.noll
» RE: G.O.P.? Posted by: MT512

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When Obama and Congress told us to shut up and sacrifice, I got confirmation that they were just
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Posted by: Zipidee DooDah & Dipidee DooDog on Mar 19, 2009 5:17 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
gonna continue doing what the GOP did. Time to impeach and prosecute Congress and the White House for not impeaching and prosecuting Bush and his gang. Why should we sacrifice when our tax dollars are going to corporate fascist pigs? FUCK YOU Congress and the White House for constantly lying to and stealing from us ! Time to get the Green Party to knock those two rightwing motherfucker parties out of Washington !!

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» How will you do that? Posted by: Beck

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Don't mourn, organize
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Posted by: Erik1968 on Mar 19, 2009 5:21 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It's pretty disgusting how impotent Americans are. Get out from behind your computer, or face the wrath of the billionaires.

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