Dismissing Godwin

Trump supporters have a new rallying cry when he goes on his rambling tirades: "Lock Them Up!" Them who? The media. It's not funny. It's absolutely fucking ridiculous. But it is not funny. The reason they want to lock up the media isn't for some profound universal infraction. Their ire is drawn by repeated condemnations from Donald Trump demanding that the media is out to get him. And the initial response, instead of asking for retractions or correcting any records, is to forfeit journalists' Constitutional rights and toss them in jail. Again, this isn't funny. And this is not an issue to be taken lightly.

I preface to all who automatically cry "Godwin's Law" when someone mentions Hitler - Shut Up. It could be argued that Godwin's Law has become a victim of that which the rule, itself, was meant to address: hyperbolic comparisons (to Hitler/Nazis). Now, of course, it is used hyperbolically to dismiss meaningful conversations where those comparisons are drawn.

In December 2015 Mike Godwin wrote in an Op-Ed for the Washington Post, "If you're thoughtful about it, and show some real awareness of history, go ahead and refer to Hitler or Nazis when you talk about Trump." Ok. Thanks.


Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf:

Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. (...) All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. (...) The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest the attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. (...) The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however, is not complex, but simple and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood.

Trump seems to understand the value of crowds of 'human children,' as well. He offers constant reminders of building his wall, banning Muslims, and demanding our leaders use terminology to dismiss billions of 'others' when talking about terrorism. He even insists that our current president is one of those 'others,' and implies that President Obama is in league with the terrorists we are all supposed to fear - that only Trump can save us from. This is all rounded out by telling us, "I love the poorly educated." Yeah. No shit.

Hitler had a very powerful propaganda machine. It was built and perfected over a decade. Trump had little to do with the machine he is using today, but he is exploiting its existence nonetheless.

In Hitler's time, radio and print journalism were the dominant media used to inform the masses. Hitler said of his message, "I will provide a propagandistic casus belli. Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth." As with Trump's messages of blaming immigrants for rapes and murders, and blaming Muslims for all terrorist acts in America, Hitler used his propaganda to elevate the Aryans by correlating all evil acts in society to having been perpetrated by the Jews. And Communists (the left).

The first objective of propaganda is to dismiss those who the public is used to getting their information from. In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote of his propaganda, "It must not investigate the truth objectively and, in so far as it is favorable to the other side, present it according to the theoretical rules of justice; it must present only that aspect of the truth which is favorable to its own side." Donald Trump has certainly made the same assessment. So consider that every time you hear him whining about his media coverage or see him tweeting about his supposed vilification. These were just from today:

He has defined his victimhood-by-the-press for over a year now. His rallies have a penned area where the media are kept, and he regularly points them out to the crazed audience for their condemnations. The hysteria has even bled over into the pen where MSNBCs Katy Tur was once afforded a Secret Service escort for her own safety after a particulary nasty tirade against her by Trump.

It might seem like a stretch to suggest that he would round up the press who reported unfavorably about him if he were elected. There really is no telling what he would do, to be honest. He has given us some hints about his own opinions on killing journalists, however.

So there's that.

In 1933, when the Nazi's were rising to power, one of the first acts was to create concentration camps for Hitler's political opposition. Many of those who opposed him were the journalists who had written about him and warned of his rise.

Fritz Gerlich was a German who wrote against the Hitler regime. Early in his career, he was a conservative nationalist until the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. He saw the Nazi movement for what it was, and reported accordingly. In 1929, he started a newspaper to expose the lies the propagandists were beginning to feed the public. By 1932, the paper had a circulation of 40,000 and was renamed Der Gerade Weg (The Straight Path), where he wrote "National Socialism means: Enmity with neighboring nations, tyranny internally, civil war, world war, lies, hatred, fratricide and boundless want." After taking power in 1933, Gerlich was one of the first arrests made. He was transported to Dachau and died a year later during the Night of the Long Knives.

Otto Felix Kanitz, who was prominent in the Austrian anti-authoritarianism movement, wrote a pamphlet, Kämpfer der Zukunft, which was banned by the Nazis and included in the first book burnings in 1933. In 1934, he went into exile but returned to Austria in 1938. He was then captured and sent to Buchenwald where he was executed.

Henry Wilhelm Kristiansen was a Norwegian newspaper editor for a Communist newspaper. In 1940, Norway was occupied by Germany and the newspaper was shut down by the Nazis. Kristiansen was arrested, and later released. He continued his work underground and was arrested again in 1941 when he and his wife, Mirjam, were deported. She died in Auschwitz and he in Neuengamme.

Arne Jostein Ingebrethsen was a Norwegian newspaper writer who was determined to write against the German occupation of Norway. He was imprisoned for an article in 1940 and, upon release, continued his work to denounce the occupation. In 1943, he was arrested again and moved to different concentration camps until he died in Melk, just months before the camps were liberated.

I don't spend any of my time imagining that Donald Trump has the intellectual curiosity required to research Hitler's rise to make use of his successess. I believe Trump's methodology comes from having learned through his own career, and secondarily from subconsciously witnessing the rise of the Tea Party, about how to manipulate facts and appeal to the least among us.

Books will certainly be written in the future to chronicle, and compare, Hitler and the Nazis to the rise of the Tea Party and Trump's capacity to hijack their very limited message of nationalism and hating the 'others' to rise to the point where he has. They will compare their prominent egos, questionable sanity and demagoguery. They will note Trump's taking dog whistles to the next level at a time when those who needed to hear them most were at their apex. One of Hitler's greatest draws was his promise to disavow the Treaty of Versailles and rebuild the nations military. Trump has a similar message. Of course, he manages to twist-turn it into a dismissal of our own military greatness and paints his patriotism as dubious, at best.

Historians will show how neither Trump nor Hitler were remotely religious, but espoused Christian 'values' in attempts to build up the simple-minded and define their superiority. Trump's bullshit nationalistic dialogue depicting a country very few can identify will be covered. Trump's nonsensical rhetoric about caring for the nation's poor mirrors a lot of what Hitler said. Of course, to be honest, Hitler actually did see to social welfare of the working class. Trump's tax plan, and long history of only looking out for himself, would surely offer more than a little supposition about who would benefit from any policies he might want to enact.

The good news? The myriad commonalities between Hitler and Trump can be countered with numerous differences. Hitler was an amazing orator and used his skills to rally many people beyond his base. Trump can either stand in front of a teleprompTer and mangle the very words in front of him, or ad-lib an entire speech and leave any thoughtful audience to seriously question his mental stability, but be certain: he thinks of little more than inflating his own ego.

Hitler worked very hard for many years to build his movement. He was passionate in his attempt. Trump is lazy and expects to just hijack a fading movement and take it to the White House. As utterly disgusting and inhuman as Hitler's entire rule was, he completely believed in it. He was a genuine zealot of his own movement. Donald Trump could obviously care less about nearly every issue in the GOP (or any other) platform. Hitler had a large team of people who understood his mission and worked tirelessly for him (many out of fear). Trump doesn't know what he's doing from one minute to the next, and his own 'team' are wholly confused about his end game. Those in the GOP who would gladly kiss his ass and embrace his platform of hate are even being dismissed by the candidate. Hitler had the foresight to make use of the willing parasites around him.

Let me be plain ... Just because he is a goddamned clown, it doesn't mean that, if given the opportunity, he wouldn't absolutely destroy our country. Evidence is found in countless answers he's offered from quickly determining that women who seek abortions should be punished, to his absolute dismissal of the killings of journalists shown above where he says of Putin, "At least he's running his country."

Because we are a democracy, the likelihood of his ascension can be diminished by our own passion and drive to continue moving America forward. Of course, that means all of us have to continue to speak out. Even to those who would really rather not talk about it. And, as hard as the media often makes it for us, we must rally behind their attempts to communicate the truths about the vile self-serving creature who is trying to follow MY President into the White House.


Kiss Kiss.... Mean Progressive

Republican Holocaust

Okay. I have fucking had it. I am not kidding. There are few things that can get me as pissed as I am right now. My body is covered in hives. I have had it with the GOP having absolutely zero respect for Americans, for history and certainly lacking all decorum when designing their dog whistles.

It doesn't even phase me any longer when they make references to the Bible because it is their own professed text and mangling the words of it should make them be held accountable by someone, especially if there really will be a St. Peter waiting for them when we are finally rid of their bullshit. The Holocaust is something decidedly more grotesque.

This past weekend, Mike Huckabee said that President Obama was trying to create a new Holocaust for the Jews. His exact words were, "take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven." Not surprisinging, that pissed some people off. And, not surprisingly, he decided that meant he needed to double down.

Now listen, you bitter, hateful old sonofabitch. We all realize you need attention because Trump has taken your actual talking points to offer America as his own and you are bent out of shape because you didn't realize they would do so well in the mainstream or you would've let up on your coded language a long time ago. But as a human being, as a citizen of this Earth, there are some things that absolutely no respectable politician would draw a comparison to in attempts to denounce their opposition. And offering foresight of a pending Holocaust because of the deal struck with Iran is way over the line. No one uses that phrase, "Marching to the ovens." Wanna know why? Its not a thing. It is a thing that existed one time in history and it is such a profound thing that no rational thinking person would ever draw a comparison to it. Ever.

When you design rhetoric meaning to be analogous to the most profoundly painful and unthinkable memories of recent history, you lessen its memory and its impact on the greater human conscience. There is nothing like the Holocaust. We want to all make sure that we never have anything like the Holocaust again. When you take repeated opportunities to diminish the affects people have when they are reminded of it, you bring us one inch closer to a place where atrocities are acceptable again.

Huckabee isn't the only right wing extremist to be using Holocaust references to entice their small minded base. I had actually set this item aside a couple of weeks ago because it made me so angry that I didn't think I could construct sentences properly.

Begin by reading this famous quote by Martin Neimoller defining the theme of complacency during the Holocaust:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

In June, a group of 'Christian' leaders met in San Diego for a conference to plot ways to further destroy our futures. Chuck Stetson, a noted speaker offered this to his audience:

First they came for the adoption ministry, but I did not speak out, because I did not do adoptions.

Then they came for the wedding photographer, but I did not speak out, because I did not do photographic weddings. 

Then they came for the baker, and I did not speak out because I was not a baker. Then they came for the florist, but I said nothing, because I was not a florist.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Please pause here and reflect on the initial quotation.

Now, after you have cooled off, take a moment to reflect on which people 'they' came for in the 30s. The Socialists? The Trade Unions? And then, of course, the religious group they didn't like? Carry that with you for the next time you are called a Nazi.

It is beyond comprehension how we, as an American society, offer a voice to these mongrels. Yes, we have freedom of speech and we also have freedom of religion. However, that should not mean that we don't demand better of our media to inform us of the antics of those who mean to lead us and it does not mean that we should allow them a pass to condemn the rest of us to endure them because of their rights.

I know that it is supposed to be above a Progressive to make nasty remarks about the way someone looks. I am immature in many ways, though, and it is not one of the things I am working on presently. With that being said, this is a picture of Chuck Stetson. Can you totally see him with horns popping out of his head and long pointy teeth?

I know that they make blanket statements all of the time in calling others Nazi's, so much so that we literally have to consider Godwin's Law whenever we want to have an intelligent comparison (wink) of their beginnings and propaganda with those of the Tea Party. The base (perfect word, huh?) that they pander to don't understand history so we can't expect them to be offended, but that doesn't mean that society should accept it. To be honest, I cannot even decide which of the declarations above are worse. I'll let you decide.



***I am actually aware that this will not have been one of my greatest attempts at writing because when I get angry it is more evident that I am pissed than anything else. My President kind of sums it up for me, though.***

Warning: Be Prepared for The Next Swift Boat

When I started becoming fascinated with the Tea Party spin earlier this year I started researching where their nonsense was coming from and how it was disseminated so quickly and effortlessly throughout their network. It was actually pretty easy to figure out once I found this jackass. His name is Jerome Corsi. He was the asshole that brought us Secretary Kerry's swiftboat conspiracy lies. He is also the one that created the story of President Obama being a Muslim. And that he is secretly married to his gay lover with Michelle Obama serving as his beard. 

I know that you, my readers, are intelligent people and you laugh when you hear this shit. I do, too. For a moment. I then realize that the problem with America is that we are a country which thrives on tabloid information and loves to talk shit about people. We have lost the capacity, as a collective, to ignore the bullshit and focus on things that are important. That is part of the success of the Tea Party and groups like them. They count on us to ignore it. And they count on morons to flock to this type of information because they are high on the excitement of it. 

Our ignoring it has failed us in the past. I honestly think, because of it, we have failed the President. The right is presently, sincerely, enjoying a rift within the Democratic Party because of the Bernie V Hillary fight we have raging among ourselves. I think the most disturbing part is the fact that some of the rumors going back and forth have actually been handed to us by the right. Regardless of which candidate you are most excited to support, please realize that if the rift continues you have not only furthered the cause of people who start rumors to ruin careers, but you will literally have handed them wins for the candidates they will be promoting next year; both in the White House and Congress. And ask yourself what our Supreme Court and our futures will look like then. Honestly. Have a quiet moments reflection on this.

I am asking ALL Democrats and Socialists and Progressives and Liberals to get behind shutting down this rumor whenever you hear it. Regardless of how you feel about any of the candidates on the left, it is the agenda of the left that will suffer, the entire agenda, if we allow them to give us more opportunities for division.

Corsi started spreading rumors about Secretary Clinton last week. The video and its implications are so vile as to say she was behind the Benghazi attacks, as was the President.

We need to get ahead of it this time.  Regardless of how incredibly ridiculous it was, remember that the rumors he started about President Obama are still discussed today. We need to laugh at the ridiculousness of this publicly and inform those around us before it makes its way into the backs of the minds of people who retain snippets of information, keep them in their mental 'negative' file and move on in life. Let them keep it in their 'negative GOP' file instead.

Their spin needs to be shut down. Period. As often as we can get in front of it we must. Please let us all work together to condemn the negative lies whenever they come out and make sure the Regressive Party understands that we see them coming and are not taking their shit.

Shut-Up You Lowlife Nazi-Commie-Marxist-Fascist-Maoist-Satanist-Hippie!

The beauty of Trumps ignorance is more fun than I should admit. I have been obsessed lately with trying to understand how the far right have been so easily duped and how the rest of America has been so blind to it. When I realized that it is all so well constructed and implemented it made things seem hopeless. The spin doctors have become so adept at putting this all in place that it felt as if they would be able to sail through without enough people catching on to really make a difference. Then we got Trump. Because he so loves to be in the spotlight hearing himself speak and he, quite obviously, refuses to hear anyone tell him the proper way to run a campaign, he is out trumpeting the dog whistles which are supposed to be subtle and never given an opportunity for reflection in mainstream media and, thus, mainstream America.

If Trump were wise, which thankfully he isn't, he would hire someone like Kevin D Williamson of the National Review to advise him. This magazine holds esteem as being a reputable (ehem) conservative outlet for those on the right to get their talking points. In his article released yesterday, Williamson proved his proficiency in disseminating the garbage where he likened Bernie Sanders to a Nazi while informing his readers that Sanders is a Jewish descendant of those lost in the Holocaust. The title of the article is, "Bernie Sanders' Strange Brew of Nationalism and Socialism." No one from the right who reads the article will be remotely concerned with the historical inaccuracies. None will reflect on impossible manglings of ideologies which any intelligent audience would immediately condemn upon first glance. And none of them will be off put by the fact that actual Nazi propaganda techniques are used in the story, itself, to amplify disdain for Secretary Clinton by only referring to her as "Herself" (capital H) throughout and never having to tell the audience who is being referenced. Its not necessary, is it Kev? Your audience has already been conditioned. The audience also doesn't need to have the word 'socialist' redefined for them to offer a negative connotation linking it to Nazis and Communists, because that work has already been done successfully, too. As with Nazi propaganda, once the insinuations are implanted, their reminders need only be perpetuated. Often.

Of course, National Socialism is Nazism. National Socialism had nothing to do with actual socialism, but mindless parrots don't need (or want) to understand that. National Socialism began with something quite similar to our American Exceptionalism which is just a fuckered up way of telling the country they are superior to everyone else by twist-turning histories into heroism with mind-numbing celebrations of anti-intellectualism. Williamson neglected to advise his readers about any of this, however, lest they draw obvious ties to their own party. The offense of connecting Sanders to Nazism is disgusting on so many levels but the aspect hardest for me is the fact that there is an audience for this shit at all. Take a moment with the revelation that people exist who will accept such 'historical' references and laud those who make them.

The contrived ideologies begin with a comparison between Sanders and Communism, jokingly calling him "that weirdo socialist from Soviet Beninjerristan" (I bet both Ben AND Jerry know the difference between Communism and Nazism so they won't read the article and be misled). The audience on the right has already been made to understand that Nazism is socialism because the S (z in our translation) is for Socialist. Of course, for any person with no need to actually understand history or ideologies, that is quite enough information to have a discussion and feel confident in ones assertions. For those of us capable of critical thought and who paid attention in World History, however, it becomes uncomfortable to even have a conversation with these people without literally drifting off to wonder how they make it through life unattended 24/7.

I started this blog because I was absolutely stunned when I made my way to Twitter this year and realized there are people on the right who are so completely brainwashed that they will literally repeat every single thing they are told. They don't need facts. They don't need logic. They don't need to have history explained to them (or science. or the Bible). They willingly repeat whatever they're told, full of blatant contradictions and lies. The final straw for me, which precluded this complete 180 in my writing, was a man on Twitter who I was arguing with. He told me, quite sincerely, that I was a Nazi Communist Marxist Fascist Maoist Hippie. I didn't even know how to reply. I sat there with bulging eyes, jaw agape and thought, "this is a joke, right?" I finally had to ask, "Do you have any idea what any of those terms mean?" To which he replied, "Yes, dumbass, it means you're a Socialist." He then told me that because I contradicted his new interpretations of the Bible, I was obviously a Satanist, as well. Indeed.

I had to read this ridiculous Willamson article because of the title. My sincere fascination with conflation of ideas and history is so profound that sometimes it gets the better of me and I delve into things I ought not. This garbage will certainly be with me for a long time now and will drive me crazy because Americans are willfully ignorant to the political objectives of those on the right. It is all so contrived that they would rather not delve too deeply into something they are not really interested in anyway. Those of us who are passionate about the truths behind their objectives are dismissed because our tireless tirades become futile to an unwilling audience. And the right has the easiest objective of all. They can literally type anything, wrap it in hate and offer it to people who will gladly accept the messages as truths and pass them on.

Throughout the article, Williamson denounces those on the left for their ignorance, which is hysterical to me for all reasons outlined herein. He is counting on his audience being ignorant enough to nod and laugh while reading this shit and then pass it on to others. Meanwhile, this brilliant writer never even made a cohesive point. He opened by explaining to his audience that the socialist agenda was quite pervasive during the day he attended a Sanders rally in Iowa and he then dove into making comparisons of Sanders' ideals and those with Donald Trump. No factual historical connotations were needed and there was no obvious objective to even support the title of the article having had any relevance beyond his own excited joy in condemning a man with family members who escaped the Holocaust to being a Nazi.

He explains that Sanders is xenophobic because he believes that too many jobs are being sent overseas and we should buy things made in America. Right. Remember when that was a Regressive Party talking point? The writer wants us to only remember one of the Regressives who has ever said something similar: Donald J Trump. He tells us that Sanders and Trump are very similar in those they hold contempt for. We are now being offered condemnations of any who promote "economic patriotism" and led to believe that this is the type of thing that started the downward slope of both Russian and German societies about 100 years ago. But. Of. Course.

He also tells his audience (who will surely believe it) that he met with a young man who wondered aloud why the German welfare state (ehem) is so successful and we can't have such nice things. When urged to answer his own question, the young man realized that its because Germany is a mostly white nation where our diversity creates so many problems. He then reminds us that Trump has been saying racist things, too.

In their desperate need to remove themselves from the tirades of Trump and appeal to those their platform can't seem to get on board with their policies (those who fail to be white, male and 'Chrisitian'), they will tell their base that Trump is just like that POS socialist Sanders. And I promise you they will repeat it. Just like they tell us that the left are racists. And the left hates Jews. And the left hate women. And the left persecute people for their religion. And the left are warmongers.

The most absurd and obvious (again, only to those of us who are intelligent) revelation is an insistence that Bernie is beginning his Naziesque sojourn by trying to get rid of our most basic freedoms. (Those which impede an oligarchy)

And criminalizing things is very much on Bernie’s agenda, beginning with the criminalization of political dissent. At every event he swears to introduce a constitutional amendment reversing Supreme Court decisions that affirmed the free-speech protections of people and organizations filming documentaries, organizing Web campaigns, and airing television commercials in the hopes of influencing elections or public attitudes toward public issues. That this would amount to a repeal of the First Amendment does not trouble Bernie at all. If the First Amendment enables Them, then the First Amendment has got to go.

You have been warned. Their talking points never end. Their capacity to quickly rewrite narratives to adjust 'facts' for their voters will never cease. So be prepared for the next moron who tries to tell you that Trump is really just a socialist like Sanders and that they are both Nazi Communist Marxist Fascist Maoist Satanists.

Anti-Obamacare Nazi Propaganda

I have an anxiety disorder. Because of it I have panic attacks. I have never had a full out panic attack about anything political, though. Until today. I cannot even explain how it happened. A friend of mine in a group on G+ posted this video and I watched it. I began shaking. And before I knew it I was working to catch my breath. Sometimes when I type the words, "I just can't take it" they seem exaggerated. They really aren't. 

I am now crying. I'm so sorry to lay this all on you. It is so unprofessional to define my panic attack to you but I feel it is relevant, too. I have only just recently started to research Obamacare and its many Republican attackers. I knew I supported Obamacare and I had thought for decades that the fact that America is the only major industrialized nation to not have universal healthcare is quite telling of why we are so unbelievably fucked up as a nation. I have met some people on Facebook who are sincere victims of the Republican push to get rid of Obamacare. Their stories broke my heart and I am hoping to find the time it will take to really dedicate to an incredibly in-depth series on these tragedies. 

The millions of lives the right is jeopardizing by playing games with healthcare is heartbreaking. I cant think about it without getting sick. I am one of them and I don't even think about it. I can't spend time wondering what will happen if my governor, who happens to hate Obamacare, gets rid of our funding. I would probably be in full panic attack mode every day.

Since I started becoming more involved with social media in the last several months, I have had a revelation about the means by which those on the right are brainwashed into believing the absolute bullshit they do. It is astounding to hear them quote a rewritten Bible or history. They blow my mind. So I started researching their history and tried to figure out how this was accomplished.

I have always been fascinated by people and how they think. It was because of this fascination that I have been researching the Nazi propaganda and the Holocaust for about 30 years now. I have been struck by the profound commonalities. I wrote a piece in April where I compared the beginnings of the two movements and their propaganda ploys. The article is really long and one day I mean to break it up into several pieces. But I guess its saying something that it is only a comparison of the two and it is so long.

The group that made the bullshit video above is called Freedom Works. They are a propaganda group who literally spin every issue possible to the will of the billionaires who need the teabaggers to follow their agenda. Their web site isn't only just as hateful and devoid of any sensibility, it is a mirror of the tea party web site I found when I was researching their propaganda techniques and came across their spin doctor, Jerome Corsi. This Freedom Works site has different categories where you can select your talking point and then you can get all of the opinions you need by the professional bloggers for this Super Pac. Yes. It is a Super Pac. And yes, they literally give you your talking points. This site is an absolute revelation to me. It is, apparently, where the teabaggers get their rewritten history and contrived understandings of the Constitution.

I think all Americans on the left and even in the center who are also terrified of the extreme right need to be aware of their rhetoric so we can not only counter it in discussions with teabaggers, but with confused people who pay no attention and get their information from teabaggers. This shit cannot go on. I can't take it. I realize today's post is about as fluid as a brick and I sincerely apologize. I wanted to give this information to anyone who was looking to understand the propaganda you are up against when ignorant people demand that Obamacare is such an evil.

Stop the 'Holy Wars' Shit. Please.

I have been stuck on fear lately about never ending war. The fact that the Fox cable channel with the word 'news' in its title  has been referring to Isis as being in a Holy war is literally, and quite deliberately, baiting their very vulnerable and ignorant audience to begin following the rhetoric Isis wants America to follow. They see this as a Holy war. They want a Holy war.

America created our enemies over decades by interfering and arming groups that would later turn against us. Our being involved was going to create enemies, regardless. It took time but we are now the target for much of the hatred that permeates the ideologies of these groups. America decided to go into Iraq as retaliation for 9/11. We were lied into going to war. When the country (most of it) finally decided to see the fallacies that sent us to war, it was too late. I am proud to say that I thought it was bullshit at the time. I certainly wanted to defend our country and take care of the group that attacked us. But, as we all know, Iraq had nothing to do with it.

We have always had hawks on the right who want to go war. Any war, it seems. I am pretty convinced that their objectives are financial. That is absolutely heart breaking. Like McCain was a POW. It was a terrible time for him. But he is insistent that we should go to war every time an opportunity arises. No one seems to want to spend any time on diplomacy. It would be different if we could figure out who the opponents are and take them out. Human beings are being sent to war. Some human beings won't come home. Some human beings will come back so fucked up that they will not be able to function in society. We are constantly at war somewhere. Few in power seem to be reflecting on the fact that because we are always in war, we are always creating enemies.

Someone obviously has to take care of Isis. But they are everywhere. They are assaulting many countries. This is not an American fight. This is a world fight. I am afraid that my grandchildren will learn about WWIII and it will be a very different history lesson than the first two. There are no nations to fight in the Middle East. They are radical groups of assholes which we helped to radicalize (mad props there Uncle Sam). They compel people all over the world to kill others. With the internet, they have direct access to all of those disengaged in all societies who really just want to find someone to hate. Anyone. They can find this group and receive praise and offers of connectedness that they would otherwise never receive in their lives. They are gullible and weak. There are handfuls of these loners throughout the world. They can feel like they are a part of something where they can be celebrated for their disdain and brutality. They might have gone to a college campus or abortion clinic if they had the nerve, but this way they can act out as part of a group and feel solidarity with like-minded people. It really is a brilliant way to create an army, sadly. And they don't even have to meet. Ever. They can get their directions online. The idea of finding all of them and stopping them before anything else happens feels hopeless.

I am terrified of where we are headed. I fear for the service men and women who are going to be sent on a never ending battle with unnamed and unidentified enemies. Just because our military has been trained to fight doesn't mean they always need to be fighting. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a military solely to protect us in case something awful happened? Do we always have to be looking for something awful.

Yes, Isis needs to be dealt with. But they are an international threat. This needs to be dealt with by the UN. Why is it always us? I am sure there is an answer to that which I am just not aware of. I admit I am not well versed in all of our military histories but SHIT, this cannot be what we are looking to commit our future generations to, is it? How are these people ever going to be stopped? I don't know. But I can be damned sure that as right-wing assholes try to make propaganda out of "Holy Wars," we are just perpetuating our constant need to be fighting.

When I was a kid and classmates were considering going into the military it wasn't a foregone conclusion that they would soon be shipped off somewhere. The suicide rates of our military members wasn't astronomical. Now we just bring them home for a minute and ship them back. I sincerely worry about where this is headed. And I wonder what our reflections will be like in 10-15 years. Will we see that there was really a nefarious plot and recount all of the villains behind it and the billionaires (by then trillionaires) who are enjoying the spoils over decades of our dead young men and women? Holy War, indeed. Fuck you.

Mind Fuckers

The Tea Party is such a puzzle to me. I have always been curious about psychology and sociology. I want to know why people do the things they do. It has always been something that has both fascinated and tortured me. As a child my mind could not accept that slavery was a thing. I couldn't understand how people could steal other human beings and force them to leave their families and their homes and work and be abused and actually be owned by other people. I could not understand it. Likewise, when I learned about the Holocaust, I pretty much lost my shit. I think they are equally tragic. They both were attempts at a decimation of a large group of people. Both were exploited as a workforce for no pay. And both groups ended up being murdered in the most horrific means imaginable and their plights were both ignored for far too long by people who should have done right as human beings.

I think the Holocaust was more painful for me because its introduction to me was by video. I literally saw naked, skin and bone dead bodies in a pile being bulldozered into a huge pit. After that, there were many videos and lessons to come. I remember when we read the Diary of Anne Frank I could not get past the fact that it was one family. Of the millions of families who were safe in these countries during this time, so few did anything to help their friends and neighbors. I was bound to learn how that could happen. I needed an answer that would explain to me how millions of people could be so easily led into a situation like the one they were in and not have an uprising or do anything to help.

There are some things that end up being awful but are morally questionable at first where people could not see what was coming. This was not one of them. The beginnings of the involvement of the citizens was called The Night of the Broken Glass. I believe it was 94 or 96 Jews were killed that night. The citizenry was encouraged to go out in the streets and destroy the synagogues and homes and businesses of the Jews and beat them. AND THEY DID IT. Many tens of thousands of Jews were then deported to the concentration camps.

The more I researched the more I was sickened and disgusted with humanity. I believe that most people are born with a strong understanding of the difference between right and wrong. There are a handful of people that probably come broken or are led there, but most know what is right. The fact that an entire nation (and eventually many more nations) went along with years of this atrocity and did nothing about it was absolutely unfathomable.

When I learned about Goebbels, I was fascinated. And mortified. I am sure that propaganda has been used on some level in history in many places for many reasons. But I think he found the exact recipe to actually get all of the people to go along with it. And he patiently took the time to build it so the messages would seep in and become a part of someone's permanent mindset. He studied people and their weaknesses. He understood the ways to use fear and German Exceptionalism and intimidation. He used all means of media available to him at the time: TV, radio, newspapers and even the movies people watched. He carefully crafted the information that the citizens were receiving and even things that the students were being taught in schools. He literally created a citizenry that believed in what they were doing, regardless of the fact that it was against every hint of morality they had been born with.

Those carefully crafted propaganda ploys have been studied and implemented ever since the techniques were mastered in the 30s and 40s. At present, a small faction of the American population is under a similar misconception by those who are leading them. They claim to be demanding changes in our country to make it better for its citizens and more like the Christian nation they seek, but they are being diverted from seeing the fact that everything they are seeking is in complete contradiction with the teachings of Jesus Christ. They hate the Muslims. They hate gays. They hate black "thugs." They hate poor people who need assistance.  Jesus was totally serious about that bit where no one should be judging others lest they be judged. What? Do they think that was a misprint? But, whatever. Jesus never hated anyone, by the way. Jesus would never demand that immigrants be forced to leave and return to a violent homeland. I'm just sure of it. Didn't he love all the little children of the world?  Or was that someone else? And I feel confident saying that Jesus would not encourage anyone to rally for gun rights. I'd bet he wouldn't like weapons at all.

I am not a Christian. I was confirmed in the Methodist Church when I was 13 but it was because I was a kid and that was what my family told me to do. I grew up and decided that none of the religions completely convinced me or spoke to me and I now identify as an Agnostic. I have genuine respect for Christians, though. True Christians, anyway. There are people of all faiths who sincerely do their best every day trying to follow the tenets of their religion to be the best person that they can be and honor those teachings. It is a lovely way to live and a nice guide, when necessary. I do not respect people who conflate the teachings to fit their own agendas and exploit the weak who cannot see the truth. There are many groups who do that overseas like Isis and Al Qaeda and Boko Haram. They have fuckered up their religion beyond recognition. The Tea Party has done the same with Christianity.

I am an empathetic person and I always aspire to understand people and help them when I can. I do not need for there to be a hell to want to be a good person. I want to be a part of a positive change in the world in helping people in need when I can, and accepting them when I cannot.

The sad truth is that some of us want to understand the weaknesses of others so we can reach them and help them. And some want to understand people so they can manipulate them and exploit their weaknesses.

Brainwash. Rinse. Repeat.

As a person who is quite contemplative and thoughtful, and who has suffered repercussions for it many times, I have found myself questioning if there is truth to our own proverb "Ignorance is bliss." I have had an opportunity to have that smack me in the face repeatedly over the last couple of months as I became more familiar with and involved in social media. Like many, I have always been puzzled by the people who are passionately bound to ideas that are so obviously untrue. The majority of people who are paying attention can see the propaganda ploys that the uneducated are trapped by. I wonder if they are repeating these untruths because they sincerely believe them or because they desperately want to believe them?

Today the Tea Party is telling its followers, who then repeat, ideas that are absolutely ludicrous. They are all over social media telling others that Liberals are racist. It's kind of incredible, really. They will not be swayed by facts, though. They, quite obviously, don't need those. When you confront them with and ask them to consider America's history on race, they won't hear you. That is the beauty of ignorance. A person with no curiosity can absolutely be convinced of anything. And I cannot imagine a better group of people to unite and form a backward political party around.

As a part of my research for personal understanding into how their manipulation works, I went looking for Tea Party blogs. Yes, they are just what you would imagine: full of words that are either woefully misspelled or don't exist in the English language, hate speech at its most vile, condemnation for everything the President does or says, condemnation of anything in society that is deemed remotely liberal, condemnation of entire groups of people, praise for Jesus Christ (yes, that is funny) and an absolute lack of morality while praising that very same good Lord's name.

This is all part of a finely tuned narrative and its means of delivery. The very dimmest of the followers who are only looking for hate and unity are able to go to the internet and promote misinformation all day long. If you are not a curious person and someone tells you that your party has always been the one that has promoted and encouraged equality, you happily accept that as truth and think, "Damn straight!" You will not ask yourself why you and the rest of the party faithful have been posting the most racist things imaginable about our President, or black communities, or immigrants, or Muslims (I know that Muslims are part of a religious group, and I sincerely apologize for generalizing for space, please accept my acknowledgement as a means to make a point about people who don't know the difference anyway). Likewise, these same followers will gladly discuss and demand that Liberals hate Jews. They do not ask themselves, "Wait, don't I hate Jews? Wasn't that part of my conditioning in the beginning that led me to loving this party? We are supposed to hate Jews, right?" Nope. They just wash their brains, rinse, repeat.

The Tea Party's new found love for Jews is startling, to be sure. The Tea Party, after all, calls Ron Paul its "father." And he is a noted anti-Semite. But the rhetoric started changing around the same time the party realized it was going to have to reach out to voters beyond their usual demographic (White. Christian. Male). I can't imagine how confusing it must have been for the party faithful to have to just change their opinions on a dime. But it was done, masterfully.

Research on blogs will take you back in time where, seemingly out of nowhere, those commenting with any anti-Semitic speech were quickly ostracized by those in their party. Poor. Stupid. Hateful. Bastards. God! How confusing for them! As recently as 2010, the RNC had all kinds of hate speech on its Facebook wall saying that Israel was responsible for 9/11 and that we needed to rise up against the Zionist Jews who were controlling our country. But they don’t question it. “So? I love Jews now. And Obama and the liberals hate them? Okay. I will need more talking points though, because my old ones are obviously outdated.”

Of course, this change in direction had even more to do with the party's expanded belief (of Republicans at large, as well) to have more war. Always. They took up the cause of Israel because they could see a brand new war on the horizon. A war full of glorious defense contracts and rallies of patriotism to garner even more misled followers. But, again, only their leadership could actually see what was going on.

I have been absolutely confounded with this world of opposites I have found online. Although I can understand tools of propaganda and marvel at their brilliant use here in America, it still leaves me dumbfounded. And it leaves me with questions I haven't found answers to. I don't know how America can progress with these people having the voice that they do in society. Because the left is more educated and more thoughtful, they don't engage in arguments with these Tea Partiers. They feel it is beneath them. But, at present, the louder voice ends up as the only one really being heard.

The party has been so adept at spinning non-facts that they have managed to get the media to focus on them in a way that makes them look larger than they are. Initially they used the idea of "Liberal Media" as a means of intimidation. When any media outlet would report anything negative about anyone on the right, they were publicly dismissed and denounced for bias. Now many of those media outlets go out of their way to tell their stories with a more centered tone, regardless of whether or not the story warrants it. When the right consistently stymie all attempts at legislation, the media should be reporting on that without fear of retribution. When Americans who get their news at 6:30 for a half hour with their dinner aren't given the whole story, you validate the contention that you are illegitimate. But not for the reasons the jackasses on the right say you are. The not-so Liberal media should define causation when laws don't get passed and nominees don't get confirmed. Americans deserve to know why a sex-trafficking bill is being hindered by the right. They should be allowed their outrage when understanding the stance the right is taking on this important issue because they want to limit abortion rights to those victims. If we have a freedom of the press, and the objective of that press is to inform Americans, they are doing everyone a disservice. But they don't for fear of being called Liberal. The right has actually manipulated the media into helping their cause.

Because of the fear in the media to report stories properly and because the left is too passive to fight back, the Tea Party has been able to work their propaganda ploy with amazing precision. If the objectives and tactics on the left don't change, it will only continue to get worse. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who consider themselves Republicans who are not getting the whole picture and don't pay close enough attention that would be mortified to see how their party has been hijacked. I happen to know some of those Republicans who walk in to voting booths, check the Rs and go home.

What did the passive intellectuals see and ignore in the 20s and 30s that allowed the Nazi party to become what it was? And how did they feel about themselves by the mid-40s? I'm sure it seems outlandish to some, to liken the Tea Party and the Nazi party, but those who know the history will easily draw the same connections that I have. As long as we continue to ignore them and allow them to have this voice, we give them the power to build it for as long as they need, and to whichever ends they seek.

While the propagandists on the right are monopolizing every facet of American media to manipulate the stories and their spin, the left are sitting there taking the high road so as to not lower themselves to the level of the right. Because we have actual facts, the kind that can be supported with documentation that actually exists and not just memes created to excite those who can't be bothered to read, we could go a long way in this fight toward bringing some sense and normalcy back to these debates. But as long as we allow them to prater on as if no one is listening, we allow them to prater on where many others actually are listening. We are, by virtue of our history and moral platform, on the high road. But trying to prove it to people who aren't paying attention anyway is getting us nowhere.

As much as their leadership likes to take advantage of their ignorance, we would do well
to consider doing the same. Apparently, they don't mind.

The Tea Party Spin Doctor

Good Gravy. As much as I try to figure things out, I haven't had a revelation that will make me accept the Tea Party's existence or relevance in my world. Once my brain gets stuck on trying to understand something, I can't let it go. (Hence my 30 years research on the Holocaust, as if maybe the next book or documentary will ever make it logical). My "why" and "how" circle is still going. Round. And Round. And Round. Poor, Angie ... Indeed!

Goebbels' Pride: Tea Party Tactics

  Update to preface: Apparently the far right have been conditioned to believe that Nazi's were left wing because of the implications of Socialism being in the title. As Hitler defined below, you are simple minded, so you believe the thing you are told which allows for no contradiction with any previously held beliefs. In fact, among the earliest to be sent to death camps in 1936 were 11,000 Germans for "illegal socialist activity." Furthermore, in 1949, Einstein wrote this essay Why Socialism? He was a known Socialist and Nazi's offered a $50k bounty for his assassination. If this regime were socialist, to fit the needs of Fox viewers, either your cable television entertainment channel has been ill-informed, or the Nazi's were. [*]

American Jihadi

Originally Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Updated Saturday, July 25, 2015

The Jihad movement employs the same tactics as far right-wing Christians to collect their followers. They fucker up the religious message and offer people who want something to hate and someone to be superior to a place to point their rage. They are easy to convince because they are simple minded. I am not saying that to be mean, I believe it to be true. A thoughtful, intelligent person would neither require a fabricated group to hate, nor allow the tenets of their belief system to be altered so profoundly. So far, the American faction has been much more successful in killing Americans than those from the Middle East. Those joining Isis, al-Qaeda and the like are also convinced to kill people and then even and themselves. The leaders of both movements denounce education. I think it's pretty evident why.

Conservative Values, apparently?

This week we were offered another opportunity to reflect on those terrorists who are bred in America by the hate coming from the far right. And I promise this will end up being another opportunity missed. For whatever reason we do not want to know about what we, as Americans, create and tolerate. Our tolerance is the reason for its continuation and our tolerance of the media which neglects to inform us is the reason so few know about these events. This video below of Cenk Uygur from the Young Turks lists several I didn't even know about. If we don't inform ourselves and demand that the rest of us all do the same, we allow this environment to permeate and grow. It really is up to us. 

Dear Media:

I am a patriotic American. No. Really. I don't just use that as a cheap buzz word because my talking heads told me that I am. I love my country and I sincerely want to help bring her to a healthy place.

As such, I need for you, collectively, to acknowledge your complicity in the tragic place we are finding ourselves at this time. As America is facing so much societal unrest, our journalists are not informing their audience beyond the generic aspects which are being offered on almost all other channels. What is the point of having multiple 24/7 news outlets if there is no means of differentiation? Our politics have become ridiculous. Out of fear, you neglect to report on much of it because you don't want to be condemned as illegitimate for 'liberal bias.' Of course, by offering your audience a deliberately filtered account of facts, you are defining your work as illegitimate. But for a different reason.

In this day and age where absolutely anyone can write and build an audience (ehem), the onus is on you to be the stalwart documentarians of the true chronicle we leave to history. As such, you are failing miserably. You have allowed your messages and their means of delivery to be dictated by your competition. And, thus, you have allowed the standards by which your industry has been maintained to be lowered. Profoundly.

When something newsworthy occurs in America, it is your responsibility to ask yourselves those essential 6 questions. Write them on a sticky note and tape it to your monitor or your cameraman, if necessary. You should always realize that those are the questions your audience is looking to have answered. When you focus too much on one or neglect another, altogether, you are not offering a complete account. You are doing your own legacy and your audience a disservice.

For instance: When a riot breaks out in a city because a ball team has won or lost a championship, ask why. This will be important for future comparisons when other riots break out to create distinctions between the two. And when riots do break out in the future, don't opine to your audience about how unbelievable this is to see in our society. Don't forget to inform them of all of the other riots America has seen lately about sports teams. When protests or rioting break out in a community which has been oppressed for decades, do not spend so much of your time on the who without an in-depth look at who and then asking the most important- why. Do not offer a lazy answer about a young man being murdered by the police. The history of that city and its struggles are important pieces to building the dialogue necessary for the comprehensive understanding Americans will need to have about that young mans death. America is really losing an opportunity to understand and identify with that community.

There is no need to excitedly anticipate the next negative event to happen in the community. Another cable channel will report on that and will feel free to report on it even if it doesn't happen. Take the high road and offer your audience the respect they deserve by rising to their intellectual level. Also, in offering your audience the story of the community, please avoid using derogatory language to define the news makers. As a hint: if any term is used repeatedly on the Fox cable channel with the word 'news' in its title, refrain from using it, you are lowering yourselves to a level that a thoughtful audience will want to disassociate from. Fox has their own built in audience, if you want to appeal to them on their level, you are not a journalist.

When you do a story about a politician, we want to have many questions answered that seem to be negated by all news outlets: Who are they? Why are they running for office? What is their platform? How do they intend to make changes they seek? Presently, the politicians are directing the narrative. If they do not answer the questions America wants answered, don't send the piece to air or print. They are using you as free publicity. And you are letting them.

You are offering politicians a voice to perpetuate their rhetoric. You are neither holding them nor yourselves accountable for what knowledge Americans are being afforded about those who are hoping to shape our futures. If a politician has nothing new to say, there is no need to report on their having repeated the same thing they said the day before. Allow your budget department and management to deal with the fact that they pay for a camera, sound and a reporter to follow them around waiting for them to be interesting. If they fail to offer you anything new, do not insult your audience by giving them bullshit and calling it news.

If a politician offered an actual platform, that would certainly be newsworthy. And if their platform is wildly different than what they have been saying on the stump about their 'ideals,' it is then your responsibility, as journalists, to ask them to explain their contradictions. Out of fear, you are allowing politicians to use you as a tool to manipulate the dialogue in American discourse and lowering the expectations anyone would have of a legitimate and sincere debate. Just because their audience doesn't want to have to use critical thought, doesn't mean the rest of us don't. Lets be honest, they have their own media and aren't listening to you anyway.

If someone has written a book which has not yet been released which offers outlandish information that has not yet been substantiated, that is not news. It should not be reported as such. You have, again, lowered yourselves to the level of the Fox cable channel with the word 'news' in its title. At present, you are competing with them. They are not your competition. Your work should first and foremost be mindful of the fact that, by virtue of their having an obvious bias with opinions they have been paid to have, they are not a credible news outlet. Kindly stop behaving otherwise.

How about you stop reporting it when politicians are offering rumors? How about you use your research skills to see if there is any "there" there before you report it and offer it to the American audience? How about you go back to what you learned when studying to become a journalist and reread the definitions of "newsworthy" and "credibility"? Repeatedly. How about you only report on it when politicians actually create news? Currently you are rewarding them like giving a bone to a dog that has just shit on your floor. How about you start conditioning them to only get to have the free publicity when they do something that a politician should be doing? You are allowing them to dictate your narrative. And that is not journalism.

We have lost a lot of true legends in journalism lately. Have you paid attention to the many remembrances written and broadcast about them by fellow journalists? Do you ever imagine what will be said about you? Do you hope to have a phrase like "journalistic integrity" attributed to your work? As long as this shift of credible media coverage remains the norm, very few of today's journalists will be remembered for having been impartial and thoughtful.

Much more important than your legacy, however, is the legacy of America. You are recording her history every day. It looks pretty bleak, huh? What will future generations think when they research this era in history? You all have a hand in the place we find ourselves and how we will be remembered. Please start working as if that is important to you.