Seriously? CDC Workers Forbidden To Use the Word "Fetus"?

As I've noted in previous posts, savvy citizens must be mindful of how language has been altered to achieve the manipulation of minds, not just "elimination of bias.".  Language debasement and alteration for the purpose of brainwashing, propagandizing or plain disinformation can assume either passive or active forms.

The passive form would entail subtly replacing more apt (but blunt) normal terms with euphemisms that don't convey the same impact. Many of these were outed in the excellent book, 'Collateral Language'.  Examples include:

"Enhanced interrogation" for torture

"Death tax" for estate tax.

"Passing" for death.

There is the more recent  use of "scandal" to replace conspiracy. Thus, we are now supposed to accept "the Watergate scandal" as opposed to Watergate conspiracy, and the "Iran-Contra scandal" as opposed to Iran-Contra conspiracy. The intention of the sanitizers is clearly to expunge the concept of political conspiracy from public consciousness.

Passive language intervention can also take the form of a "guide" distributed to entice people to change, often in a communal setting or university.  For example, back in 2015 comedian Bill Maher  cited a "bias free language guide" issued by the University of New Hampshire - ostensibly to entice students to take more care in their use of language - and strive for 'neutrality'.

Some of the examples Maher exposed:

Senior citizens to be replaced by "people of advanced age".

Poverty-stricken to be replaced by "experiencing poverty"

Obese,  replaced by "people of size"

Rich, to be replaced by "person of material wealth"

Foreigner is replaced by  "international person"

Tomboy is replaced by "gender non-conforming"

And so on. While one can object to this wishy washy tendency to speak and write indirectly, the more onerous form of language control - which is inevitably thought control- is active intervention, Generally, this assumes the form of dictates issued for words one is forbidden to use under pain of some kind of punishment. As two former Wehrmacht soldiers informed me in May, 1985, these language prohibitions were issued by the Minister of Propaganda and  violation carried sanctions ranging from boycott of business, loss of employment or minor violence (beatings) to being sent to one of the camps designated for uncooperative German citizens, (E.g Dachau).

Nazi language suppression was massive and didn't involve merely a few forbidden words. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, took control of all forms of communication in 3rd Reich Germany: newspapers, magazines, books, public meetings, and rallies, art, music, movies, and radio. Viewpoints in any way threatening to Nazi beliefs or to the regime were censored or eliminated from all media.  For example, as Dieter - one of the Wehrmacht soldiers told me - a news editor who wrote in an editorial: "Jews are basically decent people" could end up in Dachau.

The objective of all such tactics has been clear since the era of PR originator Edward Bernays, who wrote:. 'Crystallizing Public Opinion'. As the title implies, the basic goal was to drumbeat the maximum number of 'the masses' into a homogeneous and consistent consent by limiting the extent of their language, and hence their thought. . But do it without their awareness. Careful use of language was the means to do this, including subtly altering the usual meaning of words.

Five years later came Bernays' definitive work 'Propaganda' - embodying those principles  which were later adopted wholesale by Josef Goebbels and Leni Reifenstahl. It was in this book that the master betrayed his intents - if ever there was any doubt before:

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government, which is the true ruling power of our country."

This is why the dedicated citizen (not merely "consumer")  must always be aware of language use, given how it molds thought and perceptions.  Not surprisingly the modern use of language alteration has also seeped in, again to try to bend minds toward acceptance. Now the latest assault on language - which is also an assault on scientific thought - is the order received by he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to avoid the use of all "forbidden words".  These words include: "fetus", "transgender", "vulnerable",  "entitlement", "diversity", "evidence based", and "science based".

Evidently, the list was revealed on Thursday in a 90 minute briefing with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget.

In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or ­“evidence-based,” the suggested  extended phrase became:

 “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” 

What's the idea? Well, as the above phrase discloses,  science would take a back seat to the sensibilities of the particular community. 

Thus,  if the CDC were to discover a Zika outbreak near Phenix City, Alabama and it was known the "community standards" were solidly anti-abortion, the CDC would not be able to suggest abortion of the "fetus" even if scans showed microcephaly.  If CDC detected an STD outbreak in another part of the Bible Belt, take your pick, there would be limits on what they could recommend in terms of prevention, e.g. no mention of "condoms".  Where, what part of the Trumpie "empire", are these directives coming from? Well, from the Department of Health and Human Services.  In the words of one HHS spokesman, Matt Lloyd, his agency "will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans".  Adding: "HHS also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and  budget decisions."   Translation: "It is up to us to decide if you really need another $300 million a year to fight Zika, or really need  to use condoms to fight STDs."

Indeed, if the italicized comment above is so, one is forced to scratch his head at the fact the HHS removed all information about LGBT Americans from its website. Instead, the HHS' Administration for Children and Families   archived a page   that gives alternative services available for LGBT people and their families.

Let's note here that the question of how to address such issues as sexual orientation, gender identity and abortion rights — all of which received significant visibility under the Obama administration — has surfaced repeatedly in federal agencies since Donnie Dotard took office. Several key departments — including HHS, as well as Justice, Education, and Housing and Urban Development — have deliberately mutated some federal policies and how they collect government information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.

At the CDC, the meeting about the banned terms was led by one Alison Kelly, a career civil servant and a senior leader in the agency’s Office of Financial Services.  This according to the CDC analyst, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the WaPo,  because the person was not authorized to speak publicly. Kelly herself did not say why the words are being banned, according to the analyst, and told the group that she was merely relaying the information. The sentiment is that other parts of HHS are also operating under the same guidelines regarding the use of these banned words, the analyst said.

At the CDC, several offices have responsibility for work that uses some or all of of these terms. The National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention is working on ways to prevent HIV among transgender people and reduce health disparities. The CDC’s work on birth defects caused by the Zika virus includes research on the developing fetus.

The ban is supposedly related to the budget and supporting materials, but in reality is a blatant effort by the anti-science, anti-intellectual knuckle draggers to control the CDC agenda.  Given Dotard's budget for 2019 is expected to be released in early February, we can expect severe cuts to the CDC - among others.. The budget blueprint is generally shaped to reflect an administration’s priorities, and Dotard's gang - as seen with arsonist Pruitt at the EPA, is definitely not there to advance science.

What is most interesting has been the reaction of CDC employees in the meeting, all expressing degrees of incredulity.  These dedicated researchers,  epidemiologists and other workers simply could not believe they were being  hijacked by a 21st century version of Big Brother and his Newspeak from Orwell's "1984" novel.

“Incredulous,” one analyst said. “It was very much, ‘Are you serious? Are you kidding?’ ”  No one could recall anytime in recent history where actual banned words were enunciated.  According to the same CDC analyst:  "In my experience, we’ve never had any pushback from an ideological standpoint,”

Well, son, with Dotard and his dolts in power you can expect many more. And, if we ever do oust these hare-brained assholes, it will likely be years -  nay, decades- before we get the country out of the decline they've instigated.

See also:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/david-swanson/76759/linguistic-devolution-and-ye-ol-resistance

Tobin Smith Spills Beans On How FOX Brain Jacks People - Converts Them To Zombies

In  the superb PBS documentary series, 'The Brain',  Neuroscientist Thomas Eagleman provides critical insights on how human brains are adversely affected by propaganda.  The origins of the latter are actually embodied in our desire to "seek out alliances" with friends, family and hopefully others who share our same interests, convictions and even political leanings. In Eagleman's words:

"It gives comfort to belong to a group"

This "group" could be an actual  social club,  a social media enclave (Facebook sub group) or political alliance. It could also be  an assembly of millions of viewers all watching the same cable channel at the same time who are led to believe they share a virtual alliance or core set of beliefs with other viewers. This is particularly cogent in the sphere of political agendas. Thus  the political agendas around us, can actually manipulate the brain activity inside us.

How to get around it and stop it? That usually must entail the victimized brain stepping outside its own 'box' to see the propaganda for what it is. The trouble is that most brains are not trained to do that so often need an outside interlocutor who is able to recognize the infection for what it is and 'unpack' it for the affected brain or brains. The goal of a propagandizing medium or broadcast is to discourage people from stepping outside their seemingly real and "truthful" cubbyholes, to see how their brains are being molded in the service of others.

Given this, FOX alumnus Tobin Smith has delivered one hell of a revealing look (in Daily Kos) of how FOX News was designed to grab the brains of the unwary, jack them - and convert them to zombies or zombie fodder for RIGHT Think.. We've known this at least since 2004 when multiple polls showed FOX viewers inhabited a different fact universe from the rest of us. Two thirds of them actually swallowed the hogswill that Saddam was an agent of al Qaeda and that justified Bush Junior's invasion of Iraq.

But the terrific thing about Tobin Smith spilling the goods is that the arch Conservatives cannot complain that he's an anonymous source or a "radical leftist".  Even better, they can  review old Fox News videos and see for ourselves the veracity of Smith’s claims.

The Kos piece begins with Smith asking FOX  über Brain jack maestro Roger Ailes:

“So Roger tell me…who is your Fox News target audience and what turns ’em on?”

Ailes reportedly replied:

“Toby . . . I created a TV network for people 55 to dead,” 

Smith then asked Ailes:

“What does our viewer look like?

To which Ailes replied:

“They look like me…white guys in mostly Red State counties who sit on their couch with the remote in their hand all day and night.”

Asked what they want to see, Ailes didn't miss a beat:

“They want to see YOU tear those smug condescending know-it-all East Coast liberals to pieces . . limb by limb . . . until they jump up out of their LaZ boy and scream “Way to go Toby…you KILLED that libtard!”

And there and then the epithet "libtard" was born, and then circulated as a meme because multiple FOX broadcasts by its paid Pied Pipers of Propaganda.  As Tobin Smith, one of FOX's long time stars acknowledges:

By careful design and staging Fox News manipulated (and ultimately addicted) the most vulnerable people in America to the most powerful drug cocktail ever: Visceral gut feelings of outrage relieved by the most powerful emotions of all . . . the thrill of your tribe’s victory over its enemy and the ultimate triumph of good over evil.

Thereby,  in effect, Fox  turned political opinion into hard core political propaganda delivered via the appearance of performance art.   Thus, we beheld cretins like O'Reilly literally getting red in the face onscreen as they bellowed a barrage of bombast over the air and into the ears (and fertile brains) of their captive audience. The captivity, of course, ensured by the performance.  Hence, the art of the performance and emphasis at the right time with the right trigger words ("liberals")  compounded the addictive process - which btw, is standard for all great propaganda.

The video below is instructive in seeing how Josef Goebbels mastered the Nazi propaganda machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E4gtnCUftw


Of course, both Trump and Hitler were also masters of performance art propaganda - especially at campaign rallies or general political rallies. See, for example, this video mix comparing the speeches of both here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGVBn_3EjmE


Each mastered emotional affect to reel in ever more supporters, spectators who then became integrated into the brain-jacked matrix. As a cable station the same performance art techniques have been perfected at FOX.   The redder Billo's face got as he got vexed at some liberal "pinhead" the more the peanut gallery felt compelled to watch. Thereby FOX became a pinnacle propaganda medium and  efficiently sold the soul of America to the highest bidder in return for 2 minute ad sequences aired during the performance intermissions.

Obviously, the fix was always in with  Facts and Truth given  the lowest priority.  But what the mostly older, trusting, small city/rural living Fox News fan never seem to understand about Fox’s partisan performance art programming was this, in Tobin Smith's words:

"The outcomes for Fox’s “panel debates” have ALWAYS been carefully fixed by the producers so that the home team (i.e, the conservative panelists like me) ALWAYS won."

In other words, the FOX producers always fixed the segments in advance to ensure the conservative side always bested the black-hearted libs. To that end, actual facts offered by the latter inevitably had short half lives  - maybe half of those proffered by conservatives (if they emerged at all).  Or, if one on one, the conservative always had been programmed to prevail over the putative liberal (such as the late Alan Colmes) who then served as the tackling dummy.

The shtick worked like a charm and convinced millions of rubes via the set piece propaganda that conservatives had the superior arguments on any topic, from health care to defense budgets, to welfare and  climate change.  Well, of course they did, if the facts and truth were carefully excised from the programs - whether O'Reilly's Factor, or Sean Hannity.  The design was intended to be one of addiction and it worked.  Fox practically guaranteed their consistent high ratings because they were feeding a blatant propaganda addiction.

How so? Since most FOX viewers from the demographic noted were already in a state of constant rage and grievance, e.g. against "the government", "welfare queens" and "the Left" - it merely required reinforcement.  Thus, FOX deliberately, according to Smith:  "fed the viewer’s rage to set their brain’s pleasure giving dopamine delivery system into high gear "    Smith completing the point started:

"Then when their conservative protagonist tribal hero (aka me 'the hitman') turned the liberal’s own words against them and vanquished the sniveling apostate into living hell on live TV…WOW…the pleasure chemical rushed through the Fox viewer's brain like a deep hit of crack cocaine (btw its the dopamine system in the brain that cocaine stimulates and makes it so addictive)."

How good does that get? Well, neuroscience has known for years that “news junkies” or “political junkies” were in fact addicts…junkies…who got their addictive dopamine hit from the emotional roller coaster of unbridled outrage followed by the dopamine releasing experience derived from the thrill of watching the victory/denouement of the ideological apostate, i.e. the "liberal" or "raical leftist".   This is exactly why FOX news and political junkies are the most brainwashed .

Smith observes that any contributor who suddenly acquired integrity in the FOX realm and discoursed objectively realized their error too late. One such example was Linda Chavez, a long time Fox conservative contributor. She  basically became a nonperson when she advocated for more legal immigration — even though her position had been consistent for 30+ years and is based on her belief in markets over central planning.  Alas, chief FOX porker Ailes didn't like it and showed his dissatisfaction with her veering off the propaganda train. According to Smith, quoted in the Daily Kos piece:

As Linda tells the story “One producer basically told me that it was “confusing” to have me on to discuss the subject because conservatives were supposed to be for less immigration and liberals for more.

What about "saving" one's family members from this brain poison? It's almost always hopeless because by the time you try an intervention it's like they've been on crack or opioids for years. As Smith related (ibid.):

"I tried to save my own mother,  but I could not break through.  She pooh-poohed my facts,and told me that Bill O’Reilly was the only person she trusted.  I was incredulous.  “Even more than me, Mom?”  Yes, because my “once excellent” critical thinking and judgement had been clouded by the media I chose to consume."

A question that often arises and which Smith also addressed is why we basically have two distinct nations accepting different facts, on terror threats, climate change, the Trump -Russia associations etc. to the extent each calls the other a "fake news" source.  As Smith informs us:

"...one part of the Fox News strategy is the tried and true conservative media narrative to insulate their audiences from opposing views — in part, by continually denouncing the mainstream media(i.e., other news sources) 24/7/365 as “liberal, biased, and not to be trusted.”

To Smith's point, I have only succeeded in turning one family member, relative away from FOX. That was my brother-in-law,  Anthony. This was after I discovered he'd been hooked in by O'Reilly in Trinidad (watching via his subscription TV).  After Janice and I gave him the lowdown on Billo and his past exploits, and showed him real news sources - like CNN - he broke the habit cold turkey. But let's be honest, that was an exception to the rule and Anthony is a retired mechanical and electrical engineer who could be reached. That is, via cogent reasoning you could actually get past his programmed lizard brain and replace the degenerate, false FOX memes.

If it were only that easy for the rest of the FOX-Trumpy lot!

Trump Reverts To Psychotic - Blames Obama For Wiretap Conspiracy

"Those who said Trump finally made the presidential pivot last Tuesday in his speech, now need to recant. Trump can't help himself. Claiming Obama bugged him is an extremely serious charge.  Trump needs to put up or shut up." - Political Science Prof. Larry Sabato, quoted in The Financial Times

"The demagogue is one who preaches 'facts' he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots." - H.L. Mencken

Well, it wasn't long before the unhinged Trump came through again, after he'd managed to control himself Tuesday night - likely with the help of a medley of anti-psychotics (and some ECT).  Recall, he for once remained to "work" in the White House last weekend, as opposed to wasting taxpayer money jetting to Mar-a -Lago. The strain showed, and finally erupted yesterday morning when he  launched a series of tweets that began at 5.35am. In one he wrote: “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

He followed up with a string of tweets in the next half-hour that claimed Obama had "defied a court rejection to tap his office", and invited a “good lawyer” to make a case against the alleged process. In fact, as NBC legal expert Ari Melber pointed out, IF there was a wiretap it was more plausibly ORDERED by a judge on account of suspicion of criminal activity or collusion - possibly with a foreign power.  So in fact, Trump's tweets - as opposed to any victimization - may actually be open admissions that he has something to be guilty about, if such wiretaps were actually FISA -warrant approved. As for the lamebrain SC Reepo Lindsey Graham, who promised an angry SC town hall he'll "look into it". There's nothing to look into. If there were any legal wiretaps, and they were ordered by a judge through a FISA warrant, Trump is likely in deep shit. A FISA warrant isn't issued casually.

Obama’s former deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, had to impart some badly needed education - and  tweeted back at Trump: “No president can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you.”

Later an Obama spokesman, Kevin Lewis, issued a statement which read:.

“A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice. As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.””

That statement by Lewis did not deny there was a wiretapping but did deny that Obama ordered one.

But my suspicion is that it's all just Trump's runaway paranoia at work. What would you expect from a nutball who fancies that conspiracy freak Alex Jones is some kind of oracle? In fact, this guy defines what it means to be a conspiracy fruitcake, i.e. a whacko who accepts conspiracies without an iota of evidence. (Like asserting Sandy Hook being a "false flag" where all the kids were actors).

The most way out Trump claim was the  comparison of the alleged surveillance of his Trump Tower communications to Watergate. This was  the conspiracy in which a 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters led to revelation of crime and cover-up at the highest level of government and, ultimately, the resignation of Richard Nixon.. Trump, no avid history reader, doesn't seem to know that the Watergate break -in was actually mounted to stop leaks with which Nixon had become obsessed. This is analogous to Trump's current obsession with the ongoing leaks out of the White House, and from intelligence operatives. According to WH insiders, Trump is beset with rage and paranoia as he's become fixated on a "death by a thousand leaks".  But the question Trump and his surrogates need to ask is 'why are people leaking?'  It must be because they are appalled by what they are seeing with an unstable fruitcake in the seat of power.

Most of us who studied Trump's pathetic excuse for a teleprompter speech, which a well-trained ten year old could give, were not surprised by his tweet storm outburst.  We knew that "Agent Orange", as this asshole has come to be known, wouldn't be able to contain his psychotic demons forever. Also, he was still smarting after one of his "pets" - Alabamy cracker Jeff Sessions- recused himself from investigating the Russkie ties. This was the final straw and likely led to his nutso charges yesterday which have most serious, politically savvy folks acknowledging he needs to be fitted for a straight jacket.

Of course, there is still that contingent of the media that inevitably overthinks Trump. They have this psycho fucker playing "three dimensional chess" in a strategic deflection move.  Thus many critics dismissed Trump's tweet storm  as an attempt to deflect attention from investigations of his ties to Russia.  This could be true as well, but I suspect it is more true that this nut we have occupying the White House is simply 52 cards short of a full deck. He lacks any impulse control whatsoever, and anybody that rises that early to tweet rage about a wiretapping conspiracy he read about on Breitbart.com, can't be all there.  As Dr. Pat Bannister would put it: "He is definitely suffering from paranoid psychotic ideations that require at least four sessions of electroconvulsive therapy each day."

Trouble is, this deranged psycho occupies the most powerful position on the planet and has access to the nuclear codes.  Make no mistake that this is an unprecedented attack by a president  (in name only basically)  on his predecessor. That alone is scary, apart from a lunatic like that having access to our nuclear triad when he should be strapped down for ECT.  But the other aspect is that the whackjob accusations were made in a series of early morning tweets, and as we know psychopathic individuals are prone to tweet their psychotic fancies early in the a.m.  Usually, they can't sleep, so they toss fitfully entertaining the paranoid fantasies in their febrile brains - and then let loose.  Which is what this turkey did.

In Trump's case as WaPo writer Chris Cillizza wrote, the "conspiracy theory candidate has become the conspiracy theory President". Adding that if Trump has evidence of this "grand wiretapping conspiracy" it's his duty to present all the facts given the burden of proof is squarely on him. . Except that what Trump is tweeting doesn't even make the threshold of a putative conspiracy theory. The latter requires - as Dr. Pat Bannister has noted- at least some basis in coherent reasoning and evidence, even if sketchy. What is on offer from Trump's Twitter account is paranoid ideation and groundless suspicion.

Of course, it wasn't long before a parade of imbeciles and like-minded screwballs tried to come to his defense and even intimated there "might be something to investigate".  Really? You mean like the grade A Repuke asshole from Iowa, Steve King, who insisted on CNN that Trump wouldn't just tweet these things "out of the blue". Oh yes he would, and for making that claim on national TV you need to be dispatched to a rubber room and put in a straightjacket too. 

Eventually, sober media heads - who finally pulled their heads out of their asses after heaping praise on Trump's "presidential" Tuesday performance - realized and showed the source of Trump's ideation were stories circulating in rightwing media, namely Steve Bannon's former fake news playground, Breitbart.    One of these farcical sites (and authors) actually  claimed Obama was attempting a “silent coup” against Trump.

Why would he do that? Obama was just elated to leave the place Jan. 20th to go off on his new life, liberated from unwarranted criticism from imbeciles and psychotic imps like Donald Trump and the Trumpies.  Obama wouldn't waste time on a fool and psycho like Trump, to tell the truth, realizing from the moment he met with him in the White House that he'd bring himself down by his own hubris.  However, and this is important, another concerned authority - maybe the former Deputy AG Sally Yates, if she suspected criminal hijinks on the part of Trump and his gang- might have gone to a FISA court for a warrant.. After all, his recent tarmac meets include with  a Russian "fertilizer" king visible on assorted runways as documented by David Cay Johnston.. Most recently at a Concord NH airport. Why would a Russian oligarch go to an obscure NC airport at the same time Trump's there? Coincidence? Yeah, and I suppose all those dead JFK assassination witnesses were coincidences too.

Clearing away the haze of spin and clutter in this case, here's what we do know: Just before last November’s election, the British former MP and novelist Louise Mensch reported that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court had granted a warrant to enable the FBI to conduct surveillance of “US persons” in an investigation of possible contacts between Russian banks and the Trump Organization.

Two months later the BBC published an article backing up Mensch’s original story about the FISA court warrant issued in October to allow the justice department to scrutinize transfers and communications between Trump associates and Russian banks. US intelligence agencies were investigating the link, it added.

The issue resurfaced this week in rightwing media, in Breitbart, and by conservative talk show  host Mark Levin. This Dodo made claims on his Thursday night show about alleged steps taken by the Obama administration to undermine Trump’s campaign to win the White House. Levin called the effort a “silent coup” by the Obama administration and said this, rather than Trump’s Russian ties, should be the subject of a congressional investigation.

As reporter Chris Cillizza has pointed out (ibid.) the error of Levin and his cohort has been to take a series of independent events, including Trump's joking about Russians hacking Hillary's emails during one campaign stop. the actual hacking and later Wikileaks' publishing of John Podesta's emails, as evidence of a conspiracy.

Of course, this "grand conspiracy" is all bull pockey.  If there is any deflection at work, it is definitely via the Reich wing media which more and more bears disturbing similarity to the Third Reich's after the Reich Press Law was passed on October 4, 1933.  Levin, like the Third Reich's propagandists, is playing the role of agent provocateur.

Of course, as Josef Goebbels - supreme propagandist of the Third Reich knew - the best propaganda always contains a kernel of truth. This is to make it more believable to the Munchkin imbecile contingent, and a bit harder to pierce for more intelligent, higher information folks. In this case, Levin's play hued to Goebbel's template since his comments were subsequently summarized by Breitbart News, in a report that also made reference to the FISA warrant reported by Mensch and the BBC.

Yesterday, Robert Costa, a Washington Post reporter, tweeted: “Per an official, I’ve confirmed that several people at the White House have been circulating this Breitbart story.” On Friday night and Saturday, Fox News hosts whom Trump is known to watch also remarked on the issue, with presenter Sean Hannity tweeting: “What did OBAMA know and when did he know it??”

Yeah, right! And uttered with the same frenzy as the nuts who travel to near Area 51 each year convinced there are buried alien bodies there. And they're prepared to try to see them even if they get arrested first for trespassing.

On another note, it appears the strain has been all too much for little Donnie the Psycho who had to take yet another weekend  vacay  to Mar-a-Lago. I supposed to clear out what few working brain cells he has left.  As usual, the spin is he is taking "a working vacation" - which I guess his PR toadies have to say given they are blowing $3 m each time Trump jets down to "White House South". But as I already observed this doesn't wash. If you are incapable of putting a full day's work in your normal work environment (White House) , you will not do it once you leave to go to a spacious hacienda with golf course, hot tubs and fancy restaurants.

Again, this is the same guy who bragged during the campaign:

"I would rarely leave the White House because there’s so much work to be done. I would not be a president who took vacations. I would not be a president that takes time off. You don’t have time to take time off."

It truly is a wonder anyone believes anything this guy says anymore, he's such a compulsive liar.

Especially when he tweets bollocks. Or wait, maybe he isn't lying. In which case he's a paranoid nut who needs to be put into a straight jacket.

Update:

Former Director Of National Intelligence James Clapper has flatly denied Trump's lame claim of a FISA warrant to bug Trump Tower. Read the details and see the interview on 'Meet the Press' Here:

http://www.salon.com/2017/03/05/watch-clapper-denies-trumps-wiretap-allegations-sunday-pundits-say-tweet-storm-meant-to-sidetrack-russia-probe/

In addition, FBI Director James Comey asked the US justice department to publicly reject claims made by Donald Trump that Barack Obama ordered his phones to be tapped during the 2016 election campaign. Comey made the request on Saturday because of his concern that the allegation was false and suggested the FBI had broken the law, according to the New York Times. Unnamed US officials confirmed Comey’s move to the Associated Press, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal..

With the responses of Clapper and Comey we can see where this is going and now more than ever it is evident that Trump's rash tweets are the manifestations of a paranoid psychotic embolism in his own brain.

See also:

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-reich/71489/3-terrifying-reasons-for-trump-s-latest-rant

If The "Alt Right" Aren't Nazis Why Are They Giving the Nazi Salute?

This is a question that bears repeating and emphasis, especially - remember - it is the deluded members of the Right who've tried to pin the "National Socialist" - Nazi tail on the left. See e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2010/07/getting-socialist-thingie-straight-once.html

But this emerges as codswallop rife with cow manure now that The Atlantic has captured the denizens of one Alt Right group - the National Policy Institute- in full throated homage to Nazi ideals and agendas with their 'Hail Trump!" (Ger. "Heil Trump!") salutes and "Sieg Heils"  See e.g. this bunch at their recent gathering in D.C. after Trump's rise to power:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/richard-spencer-speech-npi/508379/

Are there parallels with more distant history, especially in Germany after Hitler rose to the Chancellory? Yes, and much of this background has been provided by German author Konrad Heiden in his mesmerizing book, The Fuehrer.   Heiden, unlike most who write about the Third Reich and Hitler today, actually lived at the time.  He was one of the first to hear the young Hitler's rousing, anti-Semitic orations even as he recognized the perverse self-serving ideology and narcissism at work. (One now ascendant again after Trump has been voted in and appointed Stephen Bannon to his inner circle. ) This as Heiden worked as a staff reporter for The Frankfurter Zeitung.   Heiden was also one of the few writers at the time, despite the Reich laws, to stand against Nazism.

This elicits the question of what Hitler's N.S.D.A.P. or Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei  has in common with the National Policy Institute apart from shouting "Heil Hitler/Hail Trump". In fact, as Heiden points out (p. 468, 'Heil Hitler' was the greeting of the  N.S.D.A.P.  while "Front Heil!" was the greeting of the Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet) itself derived from the Vaterländische Front, VF   or Fatherland Front  - which is the closest analog to the National Policy Institute today. This is given both are devoted to pure Nationalism and the removal of "untermenschen". (More below).

Heiden in his earlier German version 'Hitler- Das Leben Eines Diktators' (1936), of his remarkable book, traces extreme German Nationalism as embodied in  the Volkisch movement extant in Germany since the Middle Ages. It extolled a eugenic Aryanism and invested much of it in myths traced back to ancient Nordic origins. It also incorporated Christian rituals, such as the Passion Play at Oberammagau, in which the Jews were featured as "Christ killers". In other words, it was the Volkisch movement  - embodied in a cultural anti-Semitism  that had gone on for centuries, which Hitler then applied as justification for the Final Solution. (And which he crudely described in Mein Kampf). 

And just as the Jews were deemed untermenschen in the Reich, and hence listed in a National Registry for identification purposes, so also are Muslims earmarked for a similar fate under Trump's appointed White Aryan Nationalists, as exemplified by the National Policy Institute and the alt Right movement in general.

While it is true that Hitler had a rabid hatred of Bolshevism, which he tied to Jews (Karl Marx in particular) this in itself would not have made Jews a "threat" to his expansion demands for Lebensraum. Indeed, he saw the Jews as no "threats" at all but as inconvenient impediments or better, vermin, to be exterminated in line with the Volkisch mindset. 

But let us bear in mind the Jews weren't the only "undesirables" to Hitler and the Nazis. In fact, he wanted the elimination of all those deemed to be members of inferior races or nationalities, including: Slavs, Gypsies, the disabled or mentally enfeebled, and  homosexuals as well. (Blacks would also have been included but essentially numbered zero in German population statistics at the time of Hitler's final power grab on March 23, 1933.)  Heiden described Hitler's thinking in his own words, in The Fuehrer, p. 257:

"If Germany should get a million children each year and eliminate seven to eight hundred thousand  of the weakest, in the end the result would be an increase in power."


Heiden's point is that Hitler believed he could attain the "American" eugenic ideal by brutally murdering those he regarded as the weakest, including those seen as a human sub-species: the Jews.

Now, to more firmly establish parallels: It is actually the Stahlhelm to which the National Policy Institute is most closely compared from a historical perspective. This is because - as Heiden notes (p. 239) it was in this group that the leading and more educated classes placed their trust for advancement of nationalist imperatives. This as opposed to the more working class -composed Sturm Abteilung. In like manner, to advance its own agenda, the  National Policy Institute depends on more college educated white men as opposed to working class men.

Another prime parallel is that both have evidently gorged on Josef Goebbels' propaganda with the National Policy Institute actually translating some of his tracts from the original German. It is most plausible that they included this segment of one Goebbel's tract (The Nazi -Sozi, 1932) cited by Heiden:

"Certainly the Jew is also a man, but the flea is also an animal. And the other animals do not harbor and cultivate the flea but exterminate it"

Which was directly incorporated by Reinhardt Heydrich and others in implementing the Final Solution. DO the tracts being translated by the  National Policy Institute reflect the same disgusting notions and vile language? We can only surmise they do, which is why so many neo-Nazis, White Aryans and others hail the election of Trump because it's set their vicious memes free. Indeed, Richard Spencer in his screed shown in the link above actually refers to the U.S. media in the original Nazi parlance "Judenpresse" used by the Nazis. (Jewish press.)

All of which settles once and for all which side of the ideological spectrum the alt Right is on: the side of fascism and Nazism.  Again, Ian Kershaw in his magnificent account of Hitler’s rise to power (‘Hitler Nemesis’) describes in detail how the NSDAP party members would regularly beat Marxists, socialists, and any leftists on the streets while holding up signs that read: “Tot dem Marxem!” (Death to Marxists!)  Since Marxists are, in fact, Socialists first and foremost, it would make no sense for a true Socialist party to encourage anyone to do that.

If these geniuses who insist Hitler "wasn't of the Right" were correct, then WHY did they beat up on Marxists, Socialists and Commies of the LEFT?  But this shows how even these whackos abhor comparisons with Hitler and the Nazis, even when they encourage Nazi salutes! (As shown in the youtube link above). This fact is unassailable: with the spectacle of alt Right loonies giving Nazi salutes they are clearly pro-Nazi and if they subscribe to Nazism's agendas they are full Nazis. As my sister-in-law Krimhilde put it: "Being a Nazi isn't simply being a formal party member.  It is embracing Nazi ideals and agendas."

The saddest chapter in Heiden's lengthy book has to be XXIII ('Coup D 'Etat by Instalments') where we learn how fast the German electorate regretted its ill-advised choice to help Hitler attain power. When the overt persecution of the Jews and others did finally begin, we are informed (p. 456):

"Up until this time, foreign countries, as well as the German public, had been lulled by the National Socialists in the comfortable faith that 'things would not be so bad', that the anti-Jewish agitation was not meant so seriously ...Now it turned out this was a lie. The anti-Semitic agitation was meant seriously. The persecution of political enemies, bestial as it was, was part of the political struggle but the attack on Jews was an attack on a peaceful group".

Will Americans come to rue their decision to unleash Trump and his minions, as the Germans did with Hitler - and when it was too late? We can only guess. But a first important marker and indicator will be the Senate hearings for racist hate monger Jeff  Sessions as Attorney General. If the Dems roll over on this, it will be almost as bad as the Reichstag voting for the Enabling Act.. Bottom line: at the risk of our nation's own integrity we cannot allow an alt Right segregationist and white nationalist to occupy the top seat of law enforcement - come Hell or high water.

As for "fake news"  anyone reading this blog can be assured that is a non-starter. That's because I rely on multiple independent (including historical) sources which can all be cross-checked. More on this in a future post.