Inflammatory Oratory
“Inflammatory oratory and a radical catchall program, important as they were for a fledgling party out to attract attention and recruit mass support, were not enough, and Hitler turned his attention to providing more… What the masses needed, he thought, were not only ideas – a few simple ideas, that is, that he could ceaselessly hammer through their skulls – but symbols that would win their faith, pageantry and color that would arouse them, and acts of violence and terror, which if successful, would attract adherents (were not most Germans drawn to the strong?) and give them a sense of power over the weak.
“In Vienna, …he was intrigued by what he called the ‘infamous spiritual and physical terror’ which he thought was employed by the Social Democrats against their opponents. Now he turned it to good purpose in his own anti-Socialist party, …Hitler organized a bunch of roughneck war veterans into ‘strong-arm’ squads…These uniformed rowdies… soon took to breaking up [meetings] of other parties. Hitler boasted to police, ‘We got what we wanted. Ballerstedt did not speak.’ As Hitler told an audience some months before, ‘The National Socialist Movement will in the future ruthlessly prevent – if necessary by force – all meetings or lectures that are likely to distract the minds of our fellow countrymen.’”
– William L. Shirer, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
Denial Route
It’s not so much denial, as willful avoidance. We are aware of the truth, feel helpless against it in some wise, and are therefore disposed to take care of other matters as if the horror did not exist. Is there a single word for that? If it is not denial than what it is it? Oblivious perhaps. No, we don’t know a thing about what’s happening if we are oblivious. We know that this is happening but we choose to ignore it. We don’t pretend that the horrors do not exist; we merely elect to look the other way. We don’t want to see the freight train hurtling toward us, nor do we want to get off the tracks out of its way!
Belief
People want to believe, and when they do, they stop thinking.
Koch Fiends – three good sources – synopsis and links.
The Koch brothers’ radical rightwing Republican-Tea Party effort to stigmatize hard-working honest working people and the middle class is nothing short of treason. They are evil, stupid people trying to destroy liberty, equality and fraternity, arch enemies of our democratic republic and its Constitution. They are truly un-American and must be resisted by all clear-minded people everywhere. Down with the Republican-Tea Party stooges! Down with the Koch brothers!
Public Enemies – Charles and David
To join the resistance, go to www.freespeechforpeople.org. READ MORE: .http://www.jimhightower.com/node/7369
The Billionaire Brothers Who Make Us Sick
What makes the Koch Brothers particularly scary, though, is not that they reflexively oppose any change that might hurt their own bottom line. That doesn’t make them all that different from Massey Energy or Chevron or lots of other big polluters (Koch Industries was ranked in the top ten of air polluters in the U.S. by a University of Massachusetts study). What’s different about the Kochs is that they subscribe to a radical libertarian philosophy that opposes any governmental safeguards to protect people or the environment. It’s a grim vision of our country that few Americans would ever subscribe to if they could see it plainly, and yet — thanks to the brothers’ enormous wealth — it’s had an out-sized effect on both our government and our public discourse. It’s like a hidden riptide that keeps pulling you out to sea no matter how hard you strike toward the shore.
But what makes riptides most dangerous is that people don’t even know what they’re fighting against. This week the Sierra Club will put a spotlight on the Koch brothers’ agenda. I encourage you to join our Facebook campaign to help get the word out. Because when people can see their democracy being hijacked, they refuse to tolerate it.
Let me end on a positive note. We’ve trounced the Koch brothers before. Remember Prop 23 — the California initiative to roll back efforts to fight climate change? The Koch brothers were one of the proposition’s largest bankrollers, but California voters overwhelmingly rejected their vision. Now it’s time for all Americans to stand up to the Koch brothers’ dangerous efforts to keep us tied to the dirty energy sources which making people sick and destroy our nation’s economic health. It’s time this billionaire’s good old boy’s club got out of the way of the innovative new energy sources that are producing jobs and prosperity for the rest of us. READ MORE: http://sierraclub.typepad.com/michaelbrune/2011/01/the-billionaire-brothers-who-make-us-sick-.html
The Plutocrat’s Coup d’Etat, Their Republican Allies and Their Democratic Enablers by John Atcheson February 25, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
For thirty years, Republicans have been yammering about small government, deficits, the glories of the free market, and the incompetence and wastefulness of government.
It’s all been a big lie, part of a well funded and cleverly executed coup d’etat, designed to enable the ultra rich and corporations to literally take power out of the hands of government and money out of the pockets of individual citizens.
Democrats have either actively participated in the coup or watched in near silence. The press has been passively playing the part of a mute stenographer. The basis of this coup is simple – money has become the lingua franca of political power, eclipsing the vote.
They’ve just about pulled it off.
What Can We Do? Citizens, we have a choice. We can confront this Plutocratic coup, or we can draft an apology to our founders, beg the forgiveness of the brave men and women who fought valiantly over the last two centuries to defend the ideals of this country, and then kiss those ideals goodbye. At the end of the day, we have the three things that can trump money: truth, the vote and market power. If we insist on candid, transparent discussions on the issues of the day; refuse to vote for dirty-money or mealy-mouthed candidates; and punish Plutocrats like Murdoch and Koch and Rove who intentionally distort the truth in the one place where it hurts – the market place – we can win this country back. It will take commitment, organization, a willingness to endure some hardship, and a passion for justice and fairness– the kind of things that animated exploited workers back when facts mattered, but it can be done. The pieces of a resistance to the Plutocratic coup are coming together.
Russ Feingold has established a PAC called Progressives United with a mission to reverse the infamous Citizens United Decision and get the money out of politics.
Bill McKibben’s 350.org has announced a campaign called the US Chamber doesn’t speak for me.
Van Jones and progressive groups are creating a movement to restore the American Dream – the notion that government isn’t a punch line – it is a contract between we the people; a vehicle that enables us to come together to accomplish that which must be done together; that which has, in times past, made us a prosperous, just, and noble nation.
If we back these efforts, we can prevail. If we don’t, then the words of Edmund Burke should haunt our conscience as we slide inevitably into a well-deserved Plutocratic dystopia: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [and women] do nothing.” READ MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/02/25-1
LAST SHOT
Why does she make me think of the “Wicked Witch of the West” in Wizard of Oz?
Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona
In the wake of funding cuts for organ transplants by Arizona’s GOP Gov. Jan ‘The Grim Reaper’ Brewer, a second person has died after being denied coverage for the treatment. Officials say about 100 people waiting for transplants will not get them, with at least 30 expected to die by what critics are calling “death by budget cuts.”
–Abby Zimet
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