The Dark Underbelly Of "America First"

Since Trump's campaign spewed it, we've heard the phrase "America first!" uttered countless times, including at rallies as well as speeches after Dotard's inauguration. But one common theme remains: few of Trump's followers - or for that matter, Americans in general - are aware of the dark history of the America First movement.

In an article appearing in the January 21, 2017 issue of The Atlantic we learn:

"The America First Committee (AFC), which was founded in 1940, opposed any U.S. involvement in World War II, and was harshly critical of the Roosevelt administration, which it accused of pressing the U.S. toward war. At its peak, it had 800,000 members across the country, included socialists, conservatives, and some of the most prominent Americans from some of the most prominent families. There was future President Ford; Sargent Shriver, who’d go on to lead the Peace Corps; and Potter Stewart, the future U.S. Supreme Court justice. It was funded by the families who owned Sears-Roebuck and the Chicago Tribune, but also counted among its ranks prominent anti-Semites of the day."

But this tells very little of the actual story. Or how the AFC's  tentacles subsequently spawned what would mutate into the military -industrial complex. An entity we were first warned about by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, e.g. in January, 1961:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

To learn more about the "America First" bunch and their spinoffs one needs to go to a serious monograph like  Russ Bellant's  'Old Nazis, The New Right and the Republican Party', South End Press, 1991)  Therein we learn:

The America First Committee was an organization founded in the early 1940s and whose charter and organization was dedicated to opposing all effort to aid Allies facing the aggression of Nazi Germany.

Bellant shows in detail how the propaganda and activist arm of the German Nazi party in the U.S. (the German -American Bund) was likewise active in building up sympathy  for Hitler and the Axis powers.  Indeed, prior to Pearl Harbor the zeitgeist had settled in among American Firsters that in the event of any war, the Axis  needed to prevail.  (Bellant, p. 34).     When war was declared after Pearl Harbor a common trope was that the AFC had been "disbanded" but this was patently untrue. It had merely metamorphosed into other groups and a spectrum of anti-American activities. This included spreading Nazi propaganda and militating against any war effort.

What we behold now, for those aware of history, is Trump and his White Nationalist supporters, hearkening back to the days when the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler were idolized by those screeching "America First".  Maybe this is why - after the Charlottesville VA conflict, Trump praised the marching neo-Nazis as "some very fine people".

What "America First" really meant in that earlier crass, anti-Semitic era is perfect isolationism to the extent of not entering a conflict that might bring U.S. power to bear against "Herr Hitler".    As I  pointed out, the AFC didn't disband after the U.S entered World War II, but it coalesced - along with two other groups (the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies and the American Vigilante Intelligence Federation) into what became known as The American Security Council.   

The Atlantic piece doesn't reference them, but the top players in launching the ASC were Gen. Robert Wood and William Regnery, a publisher and long time Nazi sympathizer whose publishing company (Regnery Press) was also responsible for such illustrious works as those below:  












As we see here, the primary obsession of Wood and Regnery was communism.. Hence, it made sense for them to back Hitler and the Nazis to take down the Soviet Union and the commies.  This also likely led to the U.S. importing former Nazi spies via Operation Bloodstone  following WWII - and under the aegis of Allen Dulles of the O.S.S.  the precursor of the  CIA.  Readers can learn more here:


http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Bloodstone_B_CS.html

Concerning Regnery, a 2012 TIME article observed

"As the country moved to the right, the firm became a hit machine, first under Henry's son Alfred now under president and publisher Marji Ross".

More on the ASC background: the first intended targets of the ASC were trade unions which were believed to be infiltrated by commies.  It is no coincidence that in the Third Reich trade unions also came in for special scrutiny and indeed, destruction. As we learn from author Ian  Kershaw ('Hitler Nemesis', p. xxxiii):

“Leaders of big business, though often harboring private concerns about current difficulties and looming future problems for the economy, for their part were grateful to Hitler for the destruction of the left-wing parties and trade unions."

The ASC knew that it couldn't go that far in the U.S. but it could implement a massive surveillance system. Less known is that the ASC worked in tandem with an original Army surveillance program  that had been going on for some time. This was documented in: Army Surveillance in America: 1775-1980, Chapter 7: Watching the Workers, (Yale University Press, 1991).

The technique was described by former FBI agent William Turner as:

'"a dossier system modeled after the FBI's, which was intended to weed out employees and prospective employees deemed disloyal to the free enterprise system." 

Is it possible that Trump's repeated "America First" themes and rhetoric embody a signal or message that would bring back the worst excesses of the original America First movement, especially its ties to  Nazi sympathizers and later (via the American Security Council)  an exhaustive spy system to monitor workers?  We don't know, but what we do know is that Trump is a confirmed authoritarian who would love nothing better than to be a law unto himself. We also know, from the Charlottesville conflict,  that he fancies neo-Nazis and White nationalists.     

Anyone who knows history and the sordid past associated with America First, ought to be consumed by foreboding every time they hear the words uttered by Trump -  whether he knows about the original meaning or not. 

Footnote:  Seems a conservo blogger is a tad miffed that "leftists" have called out Trump for Nazi-sympathizing but not Louis Farrakhan. Of course, there's a slight little difference here: Trump occupies the presidency, arguably the most powerful position on the planet (with the nuke codes) while Farrakhan is a basic nobody and has been.  No one is saying Farrakhan is innocent of anti-Semitism. But to make a fuss about left "hypocrisy" for not calling him out when he lacks one millionth the power or influence of Trump is take myopia to a depth way beyond any rational reckoning and clearly within the realm of false analogy and red herrings.

Why Jews Would Have To Be Stupid Or Insane To Vote Republican

Jews would have to be crazy or stupid to vote for a party that embraces a maniac like this.

Joseph Epstein, in his WSJ op-ed, 'The Political Stupidity of the Jews Revisited', Mar, 14, p. A19) insults and slanders all Jews who have ever voted Democratic - but never Republican.  In his scurrilous words:

"The Jews have been in the pocket of the Democratic Party at least as far back as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and though there are few Jews alive today who were old enough to have voted for FDR, are still in his pocket".

Adding:

"This despite the fact that we now know that FDR was not such a grand friend to the Jews for he did nothing to even stop or slow the Nazi genocide during World War II."

No mention at all that the key evidence, namely film smuggled out of Auschwitz and Sobibor, did not even emerge until 1943.  Even then, it fell into the hands of the  O.S.S. and Allen Dulles - who deemed it "Soviet propaganda" (according to the documentary 'The Holocaust Testaments'), and ensured it never saw the light of day. So FDR did not even see it to pass judgment, Dulles et al having filtered it out of his attention and scope for action, decision.

Epstein rambles on:

"The best face that can be put on this unwillingness to vote Republican is that Jewishness, if not Judaism, has at its center a hatred of injustice and a concomitant yearning for equality."

Which is absolutely true and what inspired a German Jew, Karl Marx, to write 'Das Kapital'  - exposing the sundry ways capitalism exploits the working classes in every nation.  And barely fifty years later Marx was vindicated as Hitler earned the trust and backing of German big business to further his agenda - including exploitation of Jewish labor as slaves for the Nazi armaments factories, while collecting hair, skin (for chairs), gold fillings in teeth, after gassings.. As Ian Kershaw notes (Hitler Nemesis, p. xxxiii):

“Leaders of big business, .... for their part,  were grateful to Hitler for the destruction of the left-wing parties and trade unions. They were again ‘masters in the house’ in their dealings with their work force”

Note carefully: It wasn't Hitler destroying right wing parties but LEFT WING PARTIES and TRADE UNIONS! THIS is why the German capitalists, such as Krupp, Volkswagen, I.G. Farben (infamous for later manufacturing the Zyklon B gas used in the gas chambers) etc. threw their lot behind him and provided the political ballast, without which he could never have become 'Der Fuehrer'. This is why Jews are averse to voting for a party historically tied to injustice, despite Epstein's deficits in historical memory,

Epstein then adds further insult to his slander:

"All this presumably has been ingrained in Jews by their own long history as the scapegoats of tyrants. Being underdogs, the Jews ipso facto are themselves for underdogs The Republicans traditionally have been top dogs ."

Which again, is true. Given the Republicans are the party of Big Business, entailing corporate campaign largesse, corporate welfare and screwing over the little guy - while getting too many to expunge their own interests to vote for them - it is no wonder a decent Jew would be appalled at the prospect of voting GOP.

So Epstein castigates his own people, as "slaves" to Dems while not appreciating why. But further reason for Jewish aversion to GOP agendas might be associated with the fact that Nazi infiltrations have infected the GOP from as far back as 1952. All this is well documented  by Russ Bellant, in his book 'Old Nazis, The New Right and the Republican Party' ( South End Press, Boston, 1991, p. 77). Bellant painstakingly documented how Nazis, and former S.S. infiltrated the Republican Heritage Groups and Council from the time of Reagan's ascension in 1980. Actual letters are provided, written and received,  as well as how their agenda is spelled out. He also noted a key figure who had established connections many decades earlier, i.e.

"Philip Guarino helped establish the ethnic division of the GOP in 1952. He was vice-chair of the Republican Heritage Groups Council from 1971-75."

By April 8, 1980, Guarino "was a senior member of the Republican Party National Committee, which at the time was concentrating all its efforts on getting Ronald Reagan elected President."

Recall Reagan also gave a nod to these vermin when he visited the grave site of a Waffen S.S. in Bitburg, W. Germany in 1985. The PR at the time was that it was "an accident", but don't buy it for a second!  The "ethnic division of the GOP" refers to Ukrainian and Latvian assistants and associates, or members of the extension group affiliated with the German Waffen S.S. which had helped carry out pogroms during WWII- usually butchering Jews and communists in their own nations. (Recall, Hitler often conflated the Jews with Marxists, communists based on the fact Karl Marx was a Jew.)

Let's also note Bellant's claims re: associations, groups - apart from establishing direct ties of former S.S. affiliates to the GOP, were also well substantiated in the Newsweek article ('The Right Wing Web', February 22, 1999, p.34).  The reason for reinforcing Bellant's book is that the putative basis for widespread former Nazi use and recruitment (including in our intelligence agencies, e.g. CIA) would have been laid bare....but it seemed evident to me even then that the GOP congress wished to cover its party tracks and all possible links to Nazi interests.

So tell me now: Can a political party which has knowingly harbored known Nazis - even allowing them to be integrated into its "Heritage" groups and RNC, be trusted by Jews who (from their heritage)  abhor injustice - not to mention Nazi affiliations? I think not, but you'd never realize that reading Epstein's hogswill.

Much of this, as well as CIA efforts to integrate Nazis into their formal structure is already known,  see e.g.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Bloodstone_B_CS.html

Readers can also find more information on the Nazi- CIA ties here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/in-cold-war-us-spy-agencies-used-1000-nazis.html

All the above and much more would have been fully revealed to Americans' eyes if all the documents had been released under the Nazi Wartime Disclosure Act, but it was shot down by GOP congress members in 1999 so never became law. According to an earlier Baltimore Sun article ('Government May Soon Open Files on Nazi War Criminals', Aug. 2, 1998, p. 20A):

"Under pressure from Congress, the Justice Department and other agencies may be forced to declassify tens of thousands of top-secret documents describing the U.S. intelligence community's dealings with Nazi war criminals in the Cold War years. Legislation to open most of those files has already passed the Senate and could come up for a vote in the House this week. Some historians suspect that the opened files could cause 'tremendous embarrassments' for the United States."

Less than one year later the GOP congress voted against passage, and that was it. No one has heard much about it since. Perhaps the GOP Neocons and their fellow travelers knew then, as they do now, they didn't want to let the "cat out of the bag" that they harbored Nazi DNA in their agendas.

As a litmus test, what would a prospective pro-GOP Jewish voter find at a typical Trump rally? Well, taking a cue from last night in a clip shown on MSNBC, one heard a Trump supporter yell at a bystander merely holding a sign: "Get your ass to Auschwitz!"  That had to be incendiary to any Jewish person within earshot and clearly a warning to avoid such a rally.

As for the violence at Trump's rallies, they are already legendary and nothing to be proud of, and as one Denver Post letter writer noted in today's paper, the single fault of Trump - not the protesters. Trump is the one who has continually encouraged violence in his feeble -minded lackeys (with his "Punch 'em in the face!" etc. exhortations)  as part of the "entertainment". As the letter writer put it:

"The civic virtue called tolerance does not require tolerating bigotry and intolerance, that is only craven acquiescence. Active opposition to intolerance is a vital part of the eternal vigilance that is the price of liberty."

Sadly, the pro-Nazi Germans forgot that lesson in 1932 and paid dearly as they watched passively while S.A. thugs beat up Jews, socialists, communists and trade union members at rallies. Fortunately, most Americans today - including Jews- have not fallen into that dark pit, i.e. by supporting Trump.

Contrary to Epstein's quisling-based foolishness, no respectable  Jew in his right mind would ever vote for these latter day Nazis, now or ever! Hell, no respectable American in his right mind would either!

As for Germans,, they appear at least to have learned the lessons of the past. According to an article in today's WSJ ('Merkel Stands By Migrant Strategy', p. A9):

"Generations of German voters - living in the shadow of the Nazi past - have overwhelmingly rejected right wing populists."

Maybe it's time Americans do as well, especially one in the person of Herr Donald Drumpf.

See also:
http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/thom-hartmann/66447/a-key-component-of-us-fascism-is-already-in-place

Can We EVER Educate Trumpkins On The Difference Between REAL Socialists and Nazis?

Doofus image  put up by a Trumpkin who clearly doesn't know the difference between a socialist and a Nazi

I said it before but it bears repeating, that too many are insufficiently educated in political history to know basic  differences, say between National Socialism (Nazism) and real Socialism. And not to put too fine a point on it, it's a big issue to me because as a (Democratic) Socialist I won't want to be fucking compared to or conflated with, Nazi scumballs.

Sadly, most of those who don't know any better - and likely have read the least real history- appear to be Trumpkins or those who slavishly follow their master, The Donna, aka Donald Drumpf.  As shown in previous posts the right wing blogosphere is replete with disinformation, misinformation - in particular of deliberate conflation of  textbook socialism  with  German National Socialism, despite the fact that Hitler not only dispossessed and brutalized leftists: Marxists, Socialists and commies, but dispatched them for "final solution" in concentration camps as well.

When one accesses serious resources and history texts, as opposed to comics and Faux News, one can easily see Hitler couldn't have been a real socialist by his very actions and policies most of which were totally antithetical to Socialist values. Thus, he didn't use trade unions to parlay them into any "workers' paradise" - he squashed them like bugs!

Why did Hitler hate Socialists so much, with such intensity? Robert Payne in his biography of Hitler (The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler)) acknowledges it was because the originator of Marxism, Karl Marx, was a Jew. Hitler thereby erroneously inferred that Socialism was an inherently Jewish economic philosophy and its practitioners were also Jews. Hitler, like so many Americans today, committed the fallacy of composition - a logical error attributing to an entire class (the whole) what is true of only one part,  or in this case one person (Marx).

Why can't these conflaters just admit their error and walk away? Because most are Right extremists and to admit that would be to admit ideological kinship with the Nazi Right or "National Socialists" - who merely employed the S -word to misdirect the gullible. Hitler is associated with the RIGHT because he espoused FASCISM, which is RIGHTIST! In addition, as documented by Ian Kershaw in his magnificent account of Hitler’s rise to power (‘Hitler Nemesis’) the pre-Reich Weimar Republic constituted a weak democracy which had little or no control over the most radical Rightists, especially Hitler’s (actually, originally Ernst Röhm's) NSDAP party. They would regularly beat Marxists, socialists, and any leftists on the streets while holding up signs that read: “Tot dem Marxem!” (Death to Marxists!) 

Kind of a damned funny way to show kinship with REAL Left Socialists! IF the fucking Nazis were real Socialists why did they regularly beat the living crap out of actual Socialists? So far none of the geniuses that make these false cartoons - like the one shown- has been able to answer that question.

Now, if these geniuses who insist Hitler "wasn't of the Right" are correct, then WHY beat up on Marxists, Socialists and Commies of the LEFT? Huh? My late friend Kurt's films - from his archives -also showed the same thing! 

Hundreds of gangster S.A. (enlisted by Hitler) swooping in on a crowd of union workers, Socialists and Marxists and beating them half to death.

THIS IS HISTORY, ACTUALLY DOCUMENTED! If the American Right doesn't wish to be associated with this, I fully understand, but to try to revise history because you abhor the Rightist link is both pigheaded, and disingenuous. Take ownership, then move on!

 Hey, it's understandable the American fanatical Right doesn't want to be associated with a mass murdering psycho but blatant historical revisionism isn't the way to make your case.  Kershaw again - on Hitler's links to capitalism (‘Hitler Nemesis’, p. xxxiii):

“Leaders of big business, though often harboring private concerns about current difficulties and looming future problems for the economy, for their part were grateful to Hitler for the destruction of the left-wing parties and trade unions. They were again ‘masters in the house’ in their dealings with their work force”

Note carefully: It wasn't Hitler destroying right wing parties but LEFT WING PARTIES and TRADE UNIONS! THIS is why the German capitalists, such as Krupp, Volkswagen, I.G. Farben (infamous for later manufacturing the Zyklon B gas used in the gas chambers) etc. threw their lot behind him and provided the political ballast, without which he could never have become 'Der Fuehrer'.

Beyond all this, we now have very solid evidence, thanks to released FOIA files, of how close the Republican Party has been to the Nazis of Europe. We have to thank author Russ Bellant (Old Nazis, The New Right and The Republican Party, South End Press, 1990), for meticulously documenting how and when Nazi-SS elements and cliques infiltrated the GOP and insinuated themselves into the national political framework. (Which makes one wonder how many of their past policy formulations, e.g. Paul Ryan's "Medicare Voucher plan" are Nazi-based, or hatched originally by Republican Heritage groups. Or how much the Koch brothers - who were raised by a Nazi nanny imported from the Reich- were influenced by her thinking and ideology.)

The key link are the Republican Heritage Groups, which attained major ascendancy after Reagan became president. Bellant notes (p. 4):

"In a sense...the foundation of the Republican Heritage Groups Council lay in Hitler's networks into Eastern Europe before World War II. In each of those Eastern European countries the German SS set up or funded political action organizations that helped form SS militias during the war."

He cites, for example, that in Hungary the "Arrow Cross" was the SS affiliate. In Romania it was the "Iron Guard". In Latvia, it was the "Latvian Legion". And members from ALL of these - and others - obtained passage to the U.S. and found a home in various groups after the War. Under the umbrella of the Republican Heritage Groups Council and later its "Ethnic Division". Their main purpose was in Republican campaign fund raising but they were also used for assorted "dirty tricks" against Democrats and may well have come up with the noisome plan to bargain with Iran to keep American hostages there, until after Reagan was elected (as opposed to Carter, in 1980).

No connection between the Nazis and American Right? Hell, they're freakin' bedfellows! 

The continuing display of ignorance by the Trumpkins only reinforces the perceptions that current analyses of supporter backgrounds disclose.  Rather than provide grist to that mill I'd have thought Trumpian bloggers would seek to show their education is vastly greater than those data appear to show - not less.

Why I Don't Buy 99 Percent of What the U.S. Media Says About the Ukraine

As the tensions ramp up in the Ukraine, and Kerry makes hollow threats warning the Russians "hands off" (as if the U.S. of A. wouldn't marshal  all its might if a rabble of Communist Cubans took over downtown Miami and its venerable courthouse) one has to wonder how much of the backstory we're really being told. How much do we REALLY know of the instigators in the Ukraine ? How much do we really know about the so -called "freedom fighters"? Do we know any more about them than the "liberators" we were going to back in Syria back in July - who turned out to be terrorists?

Let's observe that there's always  been a measure of hypocrisy but Official Washington used to at least pretend to stand for “democracy,” rather than taking such obvious pleasure in destabilizing elected governments, encouraging riots, overturning constitutional systems and then praising violent putsches. As blogger Robert Parry has astutely observed:

"But events in Ukraine and Venezuela suggest that the idea of respecting the results of elections and working within legal, albeit flawed, political systems is no longer in vogue, unless the “U.S. side” happens to win, of course. If the “U.S. side” loses, then it’s time for some “shock doctrine.” And, of course, the usual demonizing of the “enemy” leader."

Maybe it's because we've ignored - or the U.S. media has - how neocons are still buried in our national policy like worms in the core of an apple. Don't believed me? Then where is the mainstream press on the "NED"? The National Endowment for Democracy, which was a central part of Ronald Reagan’s propaganda war against the Soviet Union three decades ago. It has  since evolved into a $100 million U.S. government-financed slush fund that generally supports a neocon agenda often at cross-purposes with the Obama administration’s foreign policy.  As Robert Parry notes:

"NED is one reason why there is so much confusion about the administration’s policies toward attempted ousters of democratically elected leaders in Ukraine and Venezuela. Some of the non-government organizations (or NGOs) supporting these rebellions trace back to NED and its U.S. government money, even as Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior officials insist the U.S. is not behind these insurrections."


Maybe things are even more sinister than they appear, given NED emerged at around the same time as the Nazi-backed Republican Heritage Groups. All this is well documented  by Russ Bellant, in his book 'Old Nazis, The New Right and the Republican Party' ( South End Press, Boston, 1991, p. 77). Bellant painstakingly documents how Nazis, and former S.S. infiltrated the Republican Heritage Groups and Council from the time of Reagan's ascension in 1980. He provides actual letters written and received as well as how their agenda is spelled out. He also notes a key figure who had established connections many decades earlier, i.e.

"Philip Guarino helped establish the ethnic division of the GOP in 1952. He was vice-chair of the Republican Heritage Groups Council from 1971-75."

By April 8, 1980, Guarino "was a senior member of the Republican Party National Committee, which at the time was concentrating all its efforts on getting Ronald Reagan elected President." (Recall Reagan also gave a nod to these vermin when he visited the grave site of a Waffen S.S. in Bitburg, W. Germany. The PR at the time was that it was "an accident", but don't buy it for a second!) The "ethnic division of the GOP" refers to Ukrainian and Latvian assistants and associates, or members of the extension group affiliated with the German Waffen S.S. which had helped carry out pogroms during WWII- usually butchering Jews and communists in their own nations. (Recall, Hitler often conflated the Jews with Marxists, communists based on the fact Karl Marx was a Jew.)

It then may also be no coincidence that neo-Nazis have been observed amongst these proper "democracy" protestors in the Ukraine, overturning statues, harassing those who disagree with them and in general carrying on like rogues and thugs. But how much do you hear of that in the Western Press?  To make a long story short, part of the GOP agenda dating from this Nazi infiltration, evolved to overturning elected governments that didn't meet the Reagan- Far Right "smell tests". Two recent examples are Venezuela and the Ukraine.

Let's also note Bellant's claims re: associations, groups - apart from establishing direct ties of former S.S. affiliates to the GOP, were also well substantiated in the Newsweek article ('The Right Wing Web', February 22, 1999, p.34).  The reason for reinforcing Bellant's book is that the putative basis for widespread former Nazi use and recruitment (including in our intelligence agencies, e.g. CIA) would have been laid bare....but it seemed evident to me even then that the GOP congress wished to cover its party tracks and all possible links to Nazi interests

According to a Baltimore Sun article ('Government May Soon Open Files on Nazi War Criminals', Aug. 2, 1998, p. 20A):

"Under pressure from Congress, the Justice Department and other agencies may be forced to declassify tens of thousands of top-secret documents describing the U.S. intelligence community's dealings with Nazi war criminals in the Cold War years. Legislation to open most of those files has already passed the Senate and could come up for a vote in the House this week. Some historians suspect that the opened files could cause 'tremendous embarrassments' for the United States."

Less than one year later the GOP congress voted against passage, and that was it. No one has heard much about it since. Perhaps the GOP Neocons knew then, as they do now, they didn't want to let the "cat out of the bag" regarding the NED. Robert Parry again:

 "NED was founded in 1983 at the initiative of Cold War hardliners in the Reagan administration, including then-CIA Director William J. Casey. Essentially, NED took over what had been the domain of the CIA, i.e. funneling money to support foreign political movements that would take the U.S. side against the Soviet Union.


Though the Reagan administration’s defenders insist that this “democracy” project didn’t “report” to Casey, documents that have been declassified from the Reagan years show Casey as a principal instigator of this operation, which also sought to harness funding from right-wing billionaires and foundations to augment these activities."


Let's get something else clear:  Ukraine’s ousted President Viktor Yanukovych was surely no paragon of altruistic benevolence or a flawless leader, though it looks like there are few of those in Ukraine, a country essentially controlled by a collection of billionaire oligarchs who jockey for power and shift their allegiances among corrupt politicians. But Yanukovych was elected in what was generally regarded as a reasonably fair election in 2010. Indeed, some international observers called the election an important step toward establishing an orderly political process in Ukraine.

But Yanukovych sought to maintain cordial relations with neighboring Russia, which apparently rubbed American neocons the wrong way. O(fficial Washington’s still-influential neocons have been livid with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin because he cooperated with U.S. President Barack Obama in averting U.S. wars against Iran and Syria.)

In both cases, like they did with Bush and Iraq in 2003, the neocons thought they had maneuvered Obama into confrontations that could have advanced their long-term strategy of “regime change” across the Middle East, a process that started in 2003 with the U.S. invasion of Iraq but stalled with that disastrous war.

But the filth didn't succeed.

Many in the Ukraine and a dullard, incompetent U.S. media are still wondering why Viktor Yanukovych  turned to Russia instead of the EU. They were not alert to the fact the IMF and EU demanded substantial economic “reforms,” including an austerity plan that would have turned 90 percent of the Ukraine's people into street beggars.. Yanukovych  rightfully balked at the harsh terms and turned to Ukraine’s neighbor Russia, which was offering a $15 billion loan and was keeping Ukraine’s economy afloat with discounted natural gas.

Reasonable people can disagree about whether the EU was driving too hard a bargain or whether Ukraine should undertake such painful economic “reforms” – or how Yanukovych should have balanced the interests of his divided country, with the east dominated by ethnic Russians and the west leaning toward Europe. But protesters from the western Ukraine, including far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis sought to turn this policy dispute into a means for overthrowing the elected government. Police efforts to quell the disturbances turned violent, with the police not the only culprits. Police faced armed neo-Nazi storm troopers who attacked with firebombs and other weapons.

Though the U.S. news media did show scenes of these violent melees, the U.S. press almost universally blamed Yanukovych – and took almost gleeful pleasure as his elected government collapsed and was replaced by thuggish right-wing militias “guarding” government buildings.

With Yanukovych and many of his supporters fleeing for their lives, the opposition parties seized control of parliament and began passing draconian new laws often unanimously, as neo-Nazi thugs patrolled the scene. Amazingly, the U.S. news media treated all this as uplifting, a popular uprising against a tyrant, not a case of a coup government operating in collusion with violent extremists.

Is there a Nazi connection to the NED's objectives too? In all likelihood. Governments  that permitted NED to function have  often found themselves facing internal political pressures from NED-funded NGOs to shift those countries’ policies to the right by eliminating social programs deemed “socialistic” and hewing to “reform” demands from international bankers, which usually meant ceding some sovereignty to the IMF or other global institutions.

Ukraine and Venezuela are no exceptions. Sadly,  the momentum that this three-decade-old extreme Right “public diplomacy” campaign has achieved – both from NED and various neocons holding down key positions in Official Washington – pits this shadow foreign policy establishment against the President of the United States. Barack Obama may see cooperation with Vladimir Putin as crucial to resolving crises in Iran and Syria, but elements of Obama’s own administration and U.S.-financed outfits like NED are doing all they can to create crises for Putin. 

How or when will Obama flush the  god-damned Nazi-Neocons from his midst? We don't know because we don't even know if he's aware they're embedded.  We do know that this NED shadow structure, when working in concert with domestic opposition forces, had the capability to challenge the decisions of Yanukovych’s elected government, including the recent coup – spearheaded by violent neo-Nazis – that overthrew him. Presumably, NED wanted the “regime change” without the neo-Nazi element. But that armed force was necessary for the coup to oust Yanukovych and open the path for those IMF-demanded economic “reforms.”

And  while Yanukovych and his top aides were forced to flee for their lives, the opposition-controlled parliament then passed a series of draconian laws often unanimously, while U.S. neocons cheered and virtually no one in the U.S. press corps noted the undemocratic nature of what had just happened.

The Neoliberal U.S Press corps had shown themselves to be beyond pathetic, and even now are trying to hype up all sorts of alarms and fear  as Russia rightfully gathers its forces to protect its interests the same damned way the mighty U.S. would if Cuban Communists had taken over Miami.  None of these jerkoffs deserves a hearing, especially when they give so much space and credence to the NED mouthpieces.

Oh, and remember Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, the imp that was caught out saying: "FUCK the EU!"?  (Since she's part of the Neocon-NED orbit and wanted its influence to prevail, not the EU's)

She is none other than the wife of prominent neocon Robert Kagan, and  reminded Ukrainian business leaders that, to help Ukraine achieve “its European aspirations, we have invested more than $5 billion.” She said the U.S. goal was to take “Ukraine into the future that it deserves,” meaning out of the Russian orbit and into a Western one.

Thankfully, the Russians will not allow that to occur! Neocons or no!  They will not tolerate a fascist neo-Nazi empire on their doorstep any more than the U.S. would a further communist incursion.

See also:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/mike-whitney/54509/the-coup-in-ukraine-obamas-dumbest-plan-yet

Excerpt:
In order to topple Yanukovych, the US had to tacitly support fanatical groups of neo-Nazi thugs and anti-Semites. And, even though “Interim Ukrainian President Oleksander Tuchynov has pledged to do everything in his power to protect the country’s Jewish community”; reports on the ground are not so encouraging. Here’s an excerpt from a statement by Natalia Vitrenko, of The Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine that suggests the situation is much worse than what is being reported in the news:

“Across the country… People are being beaten and stoned, while undesirable members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine are subject to mass intimidation and local officials see their families and children targeted by death threats if they do not support the installation of this new political power. The new Ukrainian authorities are massively burning the offices of political parties they do not like, and have publicly announced the threat of criminal prosecution and prohibition of political parties and public organizations that do not share the ideology and goals of the new regime.” (“USA and EU Are Erecting a Nazi Regime on Ukrainian Territory”, Natalia Vitrenko)

Ukraine is gradually succumbing to the loving embrace of the New World Order where it will serve as another profit-generating cog in Wall Street’s wheel. That’s the theory, at least. It hasn’t occurred to the boneheads at the New York Times or Washington Post that Ukraine is rapidly descending into Mad Max-type anarchy which could spill over its borders into neighboring countries triggering violent conflagrations, social upheaval, regional instability or–god-help-us– WW3"
 --------------------------

Check your facts and do your homework, people, before you back the U.S. Neocon Fascists!
 

State GOPs Continue Multi-front Attacks on Women

Even as it appeared that after Rush Limbaugh's exposure as a vile swine, the pro-Woman side of America might prevail, subsequent news items disclose this war on the nation's women continues unabated. And it continues on multiple fronts, disclosing that women - especially in the age group 18-29, cannot let their guard down. Because it is clear that the GOP agenda intends to link up with the anti-birth control zealots of the RC Church and condemn them to perpetual chattel if they (GOP-ers) get control of all branches of government again. (Which is possible if 2008 Dem voters slack off and don't come out for Obama in November!)

Consider:

1) In Texas Gov. Rick Perry has suspended all operations of Planned Parenthood which had hitherto provided some $35 million worth of free health care, including free breast, cervix exams. Now, more than 1.6 million poor Texas women will have to do without, though Perry insists he will find other private sources or state monies to make up the slack. And if anyone buys that I have 3,000 acres of Barbados' prime coastline property to sell you at $1 an acre!

The fact is, these women will now likely have to go without at immense future cost to themselves and their families. But....what can you expect in a state whose governor earlier declared Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke guilty of "treason" and had actually 50 years earlier murdered a sitting President (JFK) after plastering "Wanted for Treason" posters all over Big D because he intended to pull out of Viet Nam and oh yes.....remove the oil depletion tax allowance.

2) Women in Arizona, thanks to a bill now nearing passage (The Denver Post, today, p. 5A) in the state's Republican led legislature will be required to prove they are using birth control prescription drug exclusively 'for medications such as acne' - rather than to prevent pregnancy - if they hope to be reimbursed by their insurance companies. If it is discovered they're taking birth control pills to try to impede pregnancies, they will receive not one red cent back.

This is because the Arizona bill will allow any employer - not just religious institutions -to require women to reveal what's being taken and why in order to get reimbursed.

Now, women of America, imagine this on a national scale! If the Repukes claim all branches of gov't in November, it can easily become a national reality. Or better, a nightmare for you!

3) in Virginia, that governor has gone ahead with plans to require any woman seeking an abortion to have an invasive ultrasound, in which a large probe is inserted into her vagina - which many female Virginia protestors have rightly compared to medical rape. This governor, Bob McDonnell, had pulled the bill back after a righteous outcry, but his knuckle- dragger legislature re-approved it without much fanfare. He defends it as a "small price to pay" if a woman is determined to have an abortion. To which I say, 'Bollocks!'

4) In Wisconsin, an "abstinence-only" bill has now been passed 60-34 by that state's Gooper legislature according to a story appearing in yesterday's WSJ ('Abstinence Push Wins in Wisconsin', p. A7). According to Sara Finger, executive director of the Wisconsin Alliance for Women's Health (ibid.):

"This bill gives schools the green light to teach failed and ineffective abstinence -only programs"

Indeed, and one can compare the 47% increase in out of wedlock births in this country to near 0 % in the Netherlands, where kids learn first hand about contraceptives - including condoms- from the age of 5th graders. The Dutch, at least, pragamatists that they are, harbor no illusions on how youngsters will behave and the power of their hormones once set in motion.

Meanwhile, this egregious bill comes barely a week after Utah Reep lawmakers approved the nation's most restrictive sex education bill and a year after North Dakota required that sex ed classes instruct students exclusively on the merits of abstinence. All of which paves the way for "paper virgins" but definitely contributing even more to the explosion of out of wedlock births and likely to unwanted infants.

Lost, of course, are all the fell ways this will impact our nation's long term health, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/03/proper-birth-control-answer-to-out-of.html

Meanwhile, a 2008 federally-commissioned study by the non-partisan Mathematica Policy Research Inc. found that students enrolled in abstinence -only programs were as likely to engage in premarital sex as their peers who weren't enrolled. The difference, of course, is that the peers were more likely to be familiar with and use protection and hence prevent unwanted births, while the condom-averse were not. Hence, this would explain a lot of the increase in births to unmarried under -30 women the past three years.

Even beyond the serious issue of women's autonomy over their bodies stands the larger moral issue of over-population of this planet. The fact is, over-population is aggravating all the most serious environmental problems we face from global warming to the accumulation of toxic wastes to the poisoning of our water from fracking, oil shale drilling. In this sense, humanity's ultimate well-being is threatened by the consequences of an overpopulated world. As one letter writer put it in yesterday's Denver Post:

"No matter what your religion: to pretend not to see the consequences of uncontrolled births, which are all around us, is not just short-sighted, it’s heading toward catastrophe. Religious “freedom” that forces families to have children they cannot afford or care for is not freedom; it is tyranny."

Indeed! But the tragedy is that it seems for every intelligent person (such as Anne Culver, the writer) there is an idiot, usually a male, who writes bollocks such as the following appearing in the same edition, complaining about an earlier DPost piece showing women protesting with signs reading 'Birth control is health care':

"One woman is pictured (mouth agape, perhaps yodeling) with a sign that reads, “Birth Control is Health Care.” Great. Agreed. But so are toothpaste and soap. Does the government owe us these? Aren’t aspirin, vitamins and Band-Aids elements of health care? If so, where does it stop? When everyone gets a pony?" - Kent Karber, Colorado Springs

Note this twit hails from Colorado Springs, redoubt of the Far Right nutcakes and home to such fundie bastions as 'Focus on the Family'.. The guy is obviously an idiot, since he conflates toothpaste and soap with birth control, not understanding all the serious medical conditions (such as ovarian cysts, and endometriosis) that the latter treats ......which bear no similarity to plaque on teeth....or grime on skin.

But this is what we can expect from the other side, most often (I'm ashamed to say) males! (Such as the assholes leaving comments about Sandra Fluke on the C-Span page with her public statements to House Dems.) Makes one wonder if another lineage of American males was born directly from chimps, or maybe orangs or baboons. No, wait, that would be an insult to those primate species.

All of this leaves unanswered the question of why the Repukes have such boners to keep women in thrall, subservient, pregnant....as the planet is overpopulated even more than it is.

One plausible answer was provided by author Russ Bellant in his stunning book, 'Old Nazis, The New Right and The Republican Party', South End Press, Boston, 1991, p. 77. Bellant painstakingly documents how Nazis, former S.S. infiltrated the Republican Heritage Groups and Council from the time of Reagan's ascension in 1980. He provides actual letters written and received as well as how their agenda is spelled out. He also notes a key figure who had established connections many decades earlier, i.e.

"Philip Guarino helped establish the ethnic division of the GOP in 1952. He was vice-chair of the Republican Heritage Groups Council from 1971-75."

By April 8, 1980, Guarino "was a senior member of the Republican Party National Committee, which at the time was concentrating all its efforts on getting Ronald Reagan elected President." (Recall Reagan also gave a nod to these vermin when he visited the grave site of a Waffen S.S. in Bitburg, W. Germany. The PR at the time was that it was "an accident", but don't buy it for a fucking second!) The "ethnic division of the GOP" refers to Ukrainian and Latvian assistants and associates, or members of the extension group affiliated with the German Waffen S.S. which had helped carry out pogroms during WWII- usually butchering Jews and communists in their own nations. (Recall, Hitler often conflated the Jews with Marxists, communists based on the fact Karl Marx was a Jew.)

To make a long story short, part of the GOP agenda dating from this Nazi infiltration, included banning birth control methods (as the Reich Courts did under Hitler) as well as all abortions. We see the same sort of plans now being carried out in the state courts, and no doubt the intent is to parlay these nationwide, in the GOP hopes that they can unseat Obama, while also retaining the House and grabbing the Senate.

Alas, most of these Repuke -Nazi affiliations would have been laid bare if a particular law ('The Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act') were to have passed, but a GOP-controlled congress voted it down in 1998. Had it passed, tens of thousands of top secret documents from many federal agencies would have been declassified and transferred to the National Archives. These would have included the earliest connections of S.S. - Nazis to the Republican Party.

In perspective, as many pundits have tried to parse and explain why or how the GOP has turned so far right, they'd have been provided with all the explanations available in Bellant's book. The Nazi seed having been sown, the far right move as exhibited by today's GOP was all but foretold.

American women, refuse to be GOP-Nazi slaves! Do NOT vote Repuke in any elections this year!

Want to KNOW about Nazi Germany's REAL History? Go to REAL Germans!

Some bloggers on the Right it seems, are wedded to their 1950s Superman comics. You know, the ones where some super hero (Superman? Green Lantern?) takes on Hitler and the Nazis. That has to be the only explanation of where they dredge up their endless, unsupported comical bilge and codswallop - especially in seeking to conflate Nazism with Socialism or Liberalism. But what this lot really needs to do, if any of them can summon the energy, is to make a pigrimage to Germany and try to talk to actual Germans who were alive at the time of Hitler's short-lived Reich, or better, who actually fought in it! (I suggest they hop to it before the last of these die out!)

My good fortune has been that on two occasions - one in August of 1978, the other in May of 1985, I was enabled to meet and talk to actual flesh and blood Germans from the WWII era: one who had been a member of Hitler Youth (forced to at the point of a gun to his mother's head), and two others who had fought for the most fearsome army on the continent - the German Wehrmacht. At different times, they used their own photographs, films and archives to show me - a visiting American - just what Hitler and Nazis were about. Looking back, I'm glad to have had the opportunity, because it allows me to skewer any nonsense written now.

Let's look at some of the bollocks that has been written in a certain right wing blog:

1) Hitler believed TRUE Christianity had no place in his 1,000-year Reich, so he erected a figure of the Norse god Odin and urged Germans to celebrate the season as a holiday of the ‘winter solstice’, rather than Christmas.

The TRUTH: The German Protestant Church prevailed in strength, and as German author Konrad Heiden notes (The Fuehrer, pp. 497-98), this Christian Church demanded that only Aryans be admitted, especially to the ministry. (Note: writing or talking of 'real Christians' in the historical context- in terms of modern evangelicals - is baloney, since they were never more than a tiny sect at the time, known as "the German Church of the Brethren". Much of this research I owe to my wife, who tracked my own family lineage into three branches that all featured these "German Brethren". All amscrayed to America by the mid 1800s!)`

Heiden, an ex-journalist and the only author who was alive at the time of his writing about Hitler (1930s) also points out (p. 536) it would have been "foolishness" for Hitler or any German leader to have asserted "Christianity had no place" in his Reich! Indeed, Heiden observes that up to 1918 Germany was dominated by religious communities of some type. Unbelievers were as scarce as chickens with teeth! When Hitler arrived, the same religious communities continued only now under STATE sponsorship. I.e. the German Protestant Church became Germany's state church, analogous to the Anglican Church in England.

As for the Odin bit, that wasn't anything novel that started with Hitler, but always part of the Volkisch movement that had persisted in Germany since the Middle Ages. It extolled a kind of phony 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, the Volkisch movement embodied a cultural anti-Semitism that had gone on for centuries, Hitler merely exploited it, partly out of pure laziness (he didn't have to create whole new themes and legends) and partly because German anti-Semitism had existed for centuries as a societal undercurrent (I even encountered some of it my 1978 trip to Germany when some Germans in Hemsbach questioned the "Jew ownership" of the American media).

The same goes for the "Germanization" Hitler sought, which was to create a single German mythos detached from all other European stock or memes. Thus, he emphasized the dramas of Frederich Schiller, the Operas of Richard Wagner, and the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. These were MUCH more important and crucial than any "Norse gods"! Hitler was smart enough to know, like his chosen few (Goebbels, etc.) that he wouldn't be able to pawn any ancient idols over on a people who were among the most intellectual and talented in Europe. All my German friends concurred with this, especially Kurt Braun (see photo)in Frankfurt-Am-Main, who showed films of the Nazi parades and marches, as well as others of the S.A. beating up Socialists and Marxists in the streets.

More nonsense!

Of course , liberals like to associate Adolf Hitler with the right because Hitler has been the historical villain in movies and TV for decades (a reputation Hitler richly deserves.) By liberal logic, anybody who is a villain in a movie MUST be a bad-guy.

This is what I mean by cartoon logic! In fact Hitler is associated with the RIGHT because he espoused FASCISM, which is RIGHTIST! In addition, as documented by Ian Kershaw in his magnificent account of Hitler’s rise to power (‘Hitler Nemesis’) is that the pre-Reich Weimar Republic constituted a weak democracy which had little or no control over the most radical Rightists, especially Hitler’s (actually, originally Ernst Röhm's) NSDAP party. They would regularly beat Marxists, socialists, and any leftists on the streets while holding up signs that read: “Tot dem Marxem!” (Death to Marxists!) Kind of a damned funny way to show kinship with REAL Left Socialists!

Now, if these geniuses who insist Hitler "wasn't of the Right" are correct, then WHY beat up on Marxists, Socialists and Commies of the LEFT? Huh? Kurt's films from his archives also showed the same thing! Hundreds of gangster S.A. (enlisted by Hitler) swooping in on a crowd of union workers, Socialists and Marxists and beating them half to death.

THIS IS HISTORY, ACTUALLY DOCUMENTED! If the American Right doesn't wish to be associated with this, I fully understand, but to try to revise history because you abhor the Rightist link is both pigheaded, and disingenous. Take ownership, then move on!

He goes on:

After all, who would want to be associated with a mass-murdering dictator who spread war, misery, genocide and tyranny? Certainly not the American right who made up the vast majority of the US troops that fought and died fighting against the Nazis.

This is more utter nonsense. For example, he just tosses this one out without a single validating fact! FROM WHERE, i.e. what journal or source did he produce this factoid? He doesn't say! He merely assumes most soldiers were of the "American Right". In fact, at the time of WWII service the preponderance (85-90%)of soldiers were from the political middle (unlike today, when most ARE from the Right, because Christanoid-ism has been interwoven with militarism, look at the AF Academy and their rituals the past decade, including the "heathens' run" - banging new cadets over the head with bibles if not "saved". Look at Gen. Jerry Boykin's famous and stupid remark to all Muslims that: 'My God can beat your god!')

Also, in those times, most American soldiers didn't eat, live and breathe politics and there wasn't the political polarization there is now, and has been since the Right had MLK and JFK killed (look up the architects, namely Haroldson Lafayette Hunt). Polarization didn't exist with political extremes because there was no "FOX News" to delude the mass of people, nor was there any Reich Wing Talk Radio such as from Lush Limburger and clones. People all gathered round the radio and got their news from the same sources (e.g. CBS Radio), and the same voices such as Edward R. Murrow. Thus, political division didn't exist as it does now. Sure, you had the German-American Bund in places like Milwaukee (who largely sympathized with the Nazis and Germany) but they were a small niche group and didn't join the military.

But again, the issue isn't whether the American fanatical Right "wants to be associated" with a mass murderer, but rather the historical facts about Hitler and his absolutely positive Right wing political bent! Kershaw again (‘Hitler Nemesis’, p. xxxiii):

“Leaders of big business, though often harboring private concerns about current difficulties and looming future problems for the economy, for their part were grateful to Hitler for the destruction of the left-wing parties and trade unions. They were again ‘masters in the house’ in their dealings with their work force”

Note carefully: It wasn't Hitler destroying right wing parties but LEFT WING PARTIES and TRADE UNIONS! THIS is why the German capitalists, such as Krupp, Volkswagen, I.G. Farben (infamous for later manufacturing the Zyklon B gas used in the gas chambers) etc. threw their lot behind him and provided the political ballast, without which he could never have become 'Der Fuehrer'.

As Dieter, former Wehrmacht soldier (see photo) put it:

"It was disgusting how far the big businessmen went to support Hitler! Had it not been for them I doubt he'd ever have been Chancellor or even gotten 15% of the vote in the 1932 elections.

Hans, the other former Wehrmacht soldier (who had pinned American troops down in the Teuotoburger in 1945 but didn't press the advantage) was more colorful:

"The Big Businessmen just kissed Hitler's ass! They wanted him in power more than a drunken sailor wanted a whore in shore leave!

Beyond all this, we now have very solid evidence, thanks to released FOIA files, of how close the Republican Party has been to the Nazis of Europe. We have to thank author Russ Bellant (Old Nazis, The New Right and The Republican Party, South End Press, 1990), for meticulously documenting how and when Nazi-SS elements and cliques infiltrated the GOP and insinuated themselves into the national political framework. (Which makes one wonder how many of their current policy formulations, e.g. Paul Ryan's Medicare "plan" are Nazi-based, or hatched originally by Republican Heritage groups.)

The key link are the Republican Heritage Groups, which attained major ascendancy after Reagan became president. Bellant notes (p. 4):

"In a sense...the foundation of the Republican Heritage Groups Council lay in Hitler's networks into Eastern Europe before World War II. In each of those Eastern European countries the German SS set up or funded political action organizations that helped form SS militias during the war."

He cites, for example, that in Hungary the "Arrow Cross" was the SS affiliate. In Romania it was the "Iron Guard". In Latvia, it was the "Latvian Legion". And members from ALL of these - and others - obtained passage to the U.S. and found a home in various groups after the War. Under the umbrella of the Republican Heritage Groups Council and later its "Ethnic Division". Their main purpose was in Republican campaign fund raising but they were also used for assorted "dirty tricks" against Democrats and may well have come up with the noisome plan to bargain with Iran to keep American hostages there, until after Reagan was elected (as opposed to Carter, in 1980).

No connection between the Nazis and American Right? Hell, they're freakin' bedfellows!

Now on to more bunkum:


2. As previosuly mentioned , Hitler hated Christianity...just like the SD's. Hitler would use religious symbols to manipulate people but in his own words and deeds, Hitler hated the Judaeo-Christian morality code.

And as I noted, this is bollocks. Hitler himself was a Christian, born and baptized a Catholic (whether this blogger calls Catholicism 'Christian' or not is immaterial, given that 99.9% of all religious scholars recognize it as the oldest Christian faith). Hitler also never renounced his Catholicism but even signed a Reich Concordat with the Vatican, through Eugenio Pacelli.

Further, if Hitler truly "hated Christianity" why did he not eliminate the German Protestant Church? In fact, it grew stronger than ever during the nine Reich years! Some theorize (e.g. Robert Payne in 'The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler', and Konrad Heiden in 'The Fuerher') because Jews or former unbelievers sought to join in record numbers for protection.

He does get one thing correct, that Hitler did use some PAGAN religious symbols to manipulate people. But this was not so much religious manipulation as political-psychological.

Hitler knew the psyche of the average German was at a nadir following the Versailles Treaty and all the war debts. (Germany was held almost solely responsible). He knew the only way to expiate that guilt was via a national resurrection, which saw the German people as staunch über-heroes as opposed to warmongering criminals. THIS is why he continually held pageants, with stirring speeches, and littered the airwaves and theaters with propaganda from Leni Reifenstahl. The aim was almost single-handedly to build German national self-esteem which the Versailles Treaty had demolished.

Moving on to more bilge:


3. Hitler loved big-government...just like the SD's. NAZI is a German acronym for 'Nationalist Socialist'. Hitler first gained power in elections promising 'hope and change'

Actually, 'NAZI' is an American corruption of the correct term, from the acronym: N.S.D.A.P. for Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei and the party was founded by Capt. Ernst Röhm, NOT Hitler, as Konrad Heiden notes. (I thank Dieter for providing the correct acronmym and spelling). He also chose the name not because he was fond of workers or socialists, but because it was one of the few names not already taken! (Again, smart people don't go simply by party names! After all the Democratic Republic of North Korea is neither a republic nor democratic! DOH!)

The other aspects are more bollocks. For example, he insists "Hitler liked Big government" but avoids saying that Hitler liked it in the form that most of the Amerikkan Right does; to interfere in people's lives, choices and personal business! Thus, Hitler under the Reich Laws made it a capital crime to have an abortion (confirmed by Kurt!) Any woman, normal German stock, who did so was guilty of treason against the Aryan State and dispatched to a concentration camp. Hitler also forbade pornography, and history tells us that during the Weimar Republic, German porn had attained a reputation for diversity and out-doing all other forms on the continent.

By the time of Hitler's ascent it was all but wiped out, much like the American Right sought to do under Reagan with his appointed Attorney General- Edwin Meese- at the Justice Dept. Meese set up a "Pornography Commission" and determined it was responsible for sex crimes, thereby launching a crusade much like Hitler did after the fall of Weimar.

Moreover, under Reich laws all homosexuals could be sent to concentration camps, something the American Evangelical Right has also aspired to do, as noted by Joe Conason in his terrifying 'Playboy' piece With God As My Co-Pilot. Therein several hardcore fundagelicals are quoted concerning a desire to set up "concentration camps" in which to send "homosexuals, abortionists, atheists and pornographers".

Thus, the meddling of the American Right has always gone hand in hand with the sort of Big Government meddling of the Nazis. Oh, and the Nazis forbade all use of "controlled" substances as well!


We proceed to some more disingenuous tripe:

4. Hitler was obsessed with race...just like the SD's. The liberal movement of 'multi-culturalism' reduces people to their race and ethnic origin. The multi-culti teach that we are not Americans, we are African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Irish-Americans which flies in the face of traditional American culture

In fact, as both Kurt and Dieter affirmed (in my respective visits to Germany in 1978, and 1985) Hitler's preoccupation with race was chiefly to single out those who diverged from his vision of a SINGLE ARYAN race! Thus, he pointedly obsessed and ridiculed Slavs, Poles, Gypsies, Muslims and many others for opprobrium. In other words, he sought to build ONE uniform Aryan people and disdained diverse groups, the exact opposite ot what this guy claims! He reduced people to different ethnic origins to justify exterminating them! (Note: this blogger also shows an image of Hitler with an Islamic Mullah trying to make a generalization - through this image- that Hitler and Obama are similar. Of course, this is faulty logic, based on false analogy. Hitler despised Muslims as "Untermenschen" but never failed to make treaties with them if he believed he could garner oil, or other resources for the Reich. So the image proves nothing. The Obama= Muslim crap also basically died after he sent out Navy Seals to kill Osama. But maybe this blogger hasn't caught up yet!)

But Hitler saved his most ferocious attacks for German Marxists, Communists and Socialists - who he automatically consigned to "racial traitors, non-German, non-Aryan". (In most of Hitler's writings he asserts Marxists are Jews based on the fact Karl Marx was a Jew. In other words, he uses false or superficial associations to paint a case like this blogger does!)In one of his worst tirades, a radio speech on October 15, 1933 (from Konrad Heiden's book) he shouted:

These ruinous and inferior characters have succeeded in arousing a world psychosis

This was tied to those he perceived as "Jews" in the American press, working in league with communists and Socialists in Europe to spread rumors about Hitler and demonize him.

It also highlighted, as Hans pointed out, the fact that Hitler very dimly regarded the valuation of separate ethnic groups in Germany, on their own. He could not countenance or abide separate ethnics celebrating being Slavs, Poles, Greeks, Gypsies, or anything else different from the single "Aryan German" on which he built his Reich. Thus, his mindset was exactly LIKE this wingnut blogger's - who demands a single Aryan Amerikkan race!

We move on:

5. Hitler wanted to use government control as the instrument to create his worker's paradise...just like SD's. Hitler wanted more power to 'right the wrongs' suffered by the Aryan people at the hands of the 'villainous and exploitative Jews'. Just like liberal SD's demonize white Christian males,

Again, Hitler wanted NO "worker's paradise"! Why would he IF the capitalist German companies congratulated him for destroying the trade unions? Logic anyone? A worker's "paradise" is only possible if workers' benefits are available, and these only emerge when unions fight for them. This was totally disallowed under the Reich laws, as both Dieter and Hans pointed out. As Hans put it to me in May, 1985:

That was one reason I joined the Army (Wehrmacht). The ordinary jobs were so poorly paying across the nation, the work and hours so long and the benefits so few, that I thought I'd fare better in the Wehrmacht.

As for "righting the wrongs" suffered by the Aryan people, yes - up to a point. As earlier noted, the Germans were rendered the sacrifical lambs, or more accurately - the scapegoats of Europe after the First World War. Hitler knew he would never be able to build a Reich, 10 yrs. or 1,000 on such beaten people, still paying war debts. So he had to change the game. He did it by elevating all the German people (barring Jews, Slavs, communists etc.) to one conquering race he imagined (the "Aryans") and invented propaganda around it to resurrect the nation to an unrealistic level of expectation, but beholden to his will.

More rot, or is it tommyrot?

Hitler demonized the Jews as the cause of his ethnic group's problems and wanted to use the government to take 'affirmative action' against the Jews. This same ideal is taught by every left-wing cultural institution today, they just changed the target of their hatred. Instead of 'Jews' they target 'white Christian hetero males'.

More idiocy! In fact Hitler needed a national scapegoat, so chose the Jews for that purpose, but again, this built on a pre-existing Volkisch, anti-Semitic tradition! There was no "affirmative action" (which he uses in the wrong sense). What happened is that the Jews - like ALL Socialists, Communists, and Marxists- were dispossessed of their worldly goods and bank accounts. By 1936 virtually no German Jew (just as no German Socialist, or Marxist) could own a business, or even own a personal bank account. Worse, if sighted on the streets they risked terrible beatings by gangs of S.S. thugs. Communists were often killed on sight.

As for "white male Christians" they were at the TOP of Hitler's cadre in doing this! It was all those good white Christian men that joined the S.S. and took delight in beating in the heads of Jews, or commies, to make the Reich safe for Aryan babies. Hitler fed into this hatred, again, using the "Jew as Christ Killer" meme. (Which many American evangelicals also are honest enought to adopt when not praising Israel for being the site of the battle of Armageddon to pave the way for their Messiah's "Second Coming".)

Note, he also makes a specious comparison to what's going on today, implying that liberals (socialists?) want to dispossess "white male American Christians" of their jobs and give them to...blacks? That's a joke! Black male unemployment is at an all time high (~ 17%) nearly twice the white male rate! Moreoever, those blacks who are working earn some 50-60% less on average than a white with similar skills. Thus, the exceptional black earner is now rare in this context. We also see far fewer blacks able to go on to college, as university costs have skyrocketed and academic admissions boards are applying more rigorous standards and actually devaluing affirmative action in many places. Blacks are thereby left out in the cold!

Of course, he is correct that many white males are also left out in the cold, especially in college settings as their enrollment had declined. But who's to blame for that? As noted by numerous publications which have featured recent articles ('The Atlantic, The Economist, Mother Jones, TIME etc.) it is WHITE FEMALES who are now the beneficiaries! They now make up the majority in most university campuses, and also are now graduating at significantly higher rates than males. If he has a bone to pick, therefore, he needs to pick it with the women folk not "liberals" in general!


One more outright lie:


7. Hitler hated Jews...just like SD's.

Of course, the truth is we (democratic socialists) don't "hate" Jews at all. Why would we when Karl Marx himself was a JEW! (One reason Hitler hated him!) What we hate is white evangelical Christians using Jews for rapture fodder, and to justify and create vile narratives around their end of the world schemes- to pave the way for a Second Coming! Indeed, the evangelicals reserve an even more terrible fate for all but 144,000 special Jews - dispatching them to HELL!

More to come....