I’m just so totally self-absorbed in what is so totally occupying my personal explanation for a mind.  Oh, my god, oh jesus.

The stories about the Air Force Academy seems to fit this pattern too. Onward Christian sky soldiers. Wonder what the other Academies are up to.

While I admire and am in substantial agreement with Stan’s analysis, I’m perhaps somewhat less alarmed than he about the likelihood of a near-term advent of fascism. Still, a couple very recent news shorts, one from the US and one from Britain, are enough to make me go “Ulk.” Straws in the wind?

October 16—“For the first time, Coast Guard officials want to mount machine guns routinely on their cutters and small boats here and around all five of the Great Lakes as part of a program addressing the threats of terrorism after Sept. 11.”

<http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=8870>

October 15—LONDON - A British police force is considering using unmanned aerial surveillance drones to fly over troubled local council housing estates to help tackle anti-social behaviour in respective areas, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

<http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2006/October/theworld_October553.xml&section=theworld>

http://www.govtrack.us/      search HR4752

Isn’t the draft an aspect of fascism?

prepair to serve your nation for two years. no questions asked. well unless you are gay.

“Mad As Hell HAS FAILED TO NOTICE that the State does not run all economic enterprises in Europe, Japan, Canada or New Zealand. All of those countries are still capitalistic but much more egalitarian than America. For instance, they all have Universal Health Care, which I consider a basic human right and the dividing line between decent and sociopathic societies.. Anyone who fails to recognize that distinction is a sociopath.”

You mean there are GOVERNMENTS in Europe, Japan, Canada, and New Zealand??? Gee, I never knew that! Thanks, Rabblerowzer.

Do yourself a favor and go back and read what I wrote so you don’t look like such an idiot! I, IN FACT, cited specifically Europe and Japan as places where Capitalism is working VERY nicely, thank you very much.  They have freedom, capitalism, healthy economies, and tight controls over the excesses of un-regulated capitalism—unlike our current status.  Oh, and national health care systems that work. Well, at least they work a HELL of a lot better than our system, which is about to go into collapse (and just-retiring CEO of United Health Care may well go to jail along with some others for back-dating options).

Socialism has shown itself to be a total failure again and again. So has fascism.  Only a regulated capitalist society, the ENSURES the liberty of its people with steel bands, succeeds and prospers. “corporatism” as practiced here by Mad King George and his band of Merrie Fascists is merely fascism.  And, naturally, it is failing—and taking us down with it.  See how many corporate heads in the US are facing jail time—another just cropped up Sunday night—McGuire at United Health—the options back-dater!

Ok, so I left out Canada and New Zealand. Sorry. I wasn’t trying to be complete—I was showing examples.

Sheldon Wolin is very good on the larger political dynamic (rather than the component “cultures” of militarism, racism, hyper-masculinity, etc.)

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030519/wolin

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0718-07.htm

Forwarded to me by my sister from a friend of hers, but certainly appropriate info for this blog:

The list speaks for itself!  (unfortunately)

Subject: Gelbart’s List
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2006 8:22 PM
LARRY GELBART’S LIST OF
THINGS TO REMEMBER ON
ELECTION DAY
———————————
Iraq
Abu Ghraib
Guantanamo
Unwarranted Phone Taps
Unprecedented Powers
Unmatched Incompetence
Unparalleled Corruption
Governor Bob Taft
Representative Tom Delay
Representative Roy Blunt
Representative Ken Calvert
Representative John Dolittle
Representative Tom Feeney
Representative Katherine Harris
Representative Jerry Lewis
Representative Gary Miller
Representative Marilyn Musgrave
Representative Richard Pombo
Representative Rick Renzi
Representative John Sweeney
Representative Charles Taylor
Representative Curt Weldon
Representative J.D. Hayworth
Representative Don Sherwood
Representative Bob Ney
Representative Duke Cunningham
Representative Tom Reynolds
Representative Chris Cannon
Jeff Gannon
Representative Mark Foley
Representative Dennis Hastert
Senator George Allen
Senator Bill Frist
Senator Conrad Burns
Senator Rick Santorum
David Safavian
The Vice Presidential Energy Task Force
Three bucks a gallon
Record oil company profits
Anwar Pipeline
Anbar Province
Adelphia
Merck
Halliburton
Arthur Anderson
Qwest
Tyco
WorldCom
Global Crossing
Global Warming
Global Boiling
Exxon
Enron
Abramoff
Adam Kidan
Timothy Flanigan
Ralph Reed
Rita
Katrina
Fema
Terri
Condi
Harriet Miers
The Supreme Court
Diebold
John Bolton
Florida, 2000
Ohio, 2004
North Korea
Iran
Darfur
Stem Cell Research
Scooter Libby
Valerie Plame
Golden Parachutes
Shrunken Pensions
Bernie Kerik
Eminent Domain
Social Security
Habeas Corpus
Ahmad Chalabi
The Baghdad Museum
Tora Bora
Taliban Resurgence
Iraqi Insurgents
General Eric Shinseki
General Anthony Zinni
Mission Accomplished
Illegal Immigration
Intelligent Design
Kenneth Tomlinson
Claude Allen
Swift Boat Hit Squads
Ari Fleischer
Scott McClellan
Tony Snow
Ann Coulter
Expiration of Assault Weapons Ban
John Ashcroft
Alberto Gonzales
George Tenet
Paul Bremer
Paul Wolfowitz
Richard Perle
Kissinger Redux
Duck Cheney
Donald Henry Rumsfeld
Turd Blossom
Terri Shiavo

...and finally, the
Uniter-Decider-Reader of
Camus, Shakespeare and “My Pet
Goat,” who describes the party
that successfully prosecuted
two world wars as people who
cut and run.

In reply to Mad as Hell, the only president who has not come from the super rich is Clinton, everyone should know that the reason Bush got to be president is because of his name, even at the start of this country.  The rich also rose to the top, Washington, (father of the country) married money, come from the landed gentry, owned slaves, etc. etc. the only difference is people were free to be poor. 

Also the reason gays are moviated to get into government is power for their cause, but people must remember that gays are not always out to exploit boys, but a lot go that way.  I believe that being in the closet was not just a cop out but a way to honestly make a living, but people must remember that power corrupts, and when thisgovernment is under one party rule, the corruption comes out, if the shoe was on the other foot, the Dems would be corrupt also, but what really makes the GOP the way they are is lots of money.

M.T.C., Vancouver, Washington

Comment #28831 by Mad As Hell on 10/14 at 9:07 pm
  Socialists crack me up!
  1—Socialism: The state runs all economic enterprises.
  2—And in ALL the Socialist states, past and present, who benefited from it? The   few running it at the top!

Mad As Hell HAS FAILED TO NOTICE that the State does not run all economic enterprises in Europe, Japan, Canada or New Zealand. All of those countries are still capitalistic but much more egalitarian than America. For instance, they all have Universal Health Care, which I consider a basic human right and the dividing line between decent and sociopathic societies.. Anyone who fails to recognize that distinction is a sociopath.

Matters concerning Life and Death are moral issues and beyond the understanding of sociopaths.

No matter how they identify themselves: communist, socialist, monarchies or capitalist, all countries are dominated by a ruling elite which is essentially fascistic in nature. In every instance, the power elites manipulate, repress, and exploit the masses for their own advantage. Somehow, only two or three per cent of the populations in every country end up controlling the government, the corporations, the economy and armed forces.

That’s the way it is and always has been.

How is it that the masses have never found a way to prevent or escape autocratic rule?

Even as we watch, the ideals and hopes of democracy are slip sliding away in America.

For a good discussion of the political and economic processes that led to the worst cases of fascism in the 20th century and the striking similarities to our current situation here in North America, check out this article that was published in The Toronto Star last year.

Fascism then. Fascism now?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11155.htm

The USA will find out where it’s going via two pivotal events; the 2006 and the 2008 elections. It’s that simple. If the Republicans win both elections, either: A. The (majority of)people in the USA are stupid and deserve what they get, or,
B. The elections have been rigged (again) which the American people at least by proxy, have also let happen, again. However, there IS a third choice; throw out these corrupt bastards NOW. As it is, this should have already happened; the fact that it hasn’t is a clear signal to these facists that they indeed do have more than a snowball’s chance to stay in power. With that said, think about this (and this is only ONE example); the average 18 year old is not being drafted and shipped off to Iraq to be killed or maimed, only the young men and women who enlist by choice (or due to economic hardship, maybe not so much by choice), still, if these hawks had started up a draft and Johnny next door, or your nephew or your son (or daughter)were grabbed and shipped over to Iraq and were maimed or killied or in danger of being maimed or killed, and this same situation was hanging over 90% of all US citizens, then I think maybe, just maybe, we all would have stood up a little more to our “gov’t”. The proof is is the pudding, afterall. These neocons are doing what they’re doing because we’re ALLOWING THEM TO DO IT.

Eric Hoffer said of the 1930’s,

“I can never forget that one of the most gifted, best educated nations in the world, of its own free will, surrendered its fate into the hands of a maniac.”

To whom it may apply:

Go back and read my comment 28543 on 10/12.

Now read it again.

And again.

And again.

Get it?

If not, take off the blinders or blind fold and check again.

If you are a lurker, that is, one who reads but does not comment because you can’t type, discuss it with your family and friends. Those with real education, not just job training, do some critical thinking and some analysis.

If you find anything wrong with what I said, please give me the courtesy to direct a response to me. If you are right, I will discover my error. If I am right, you can claim the benefit of the knowledge.

But, for now, if you are concerned for America, vote Democrat. It is more important now than knowing why. Do not change your voter registration if you are Republican. That is not the error. The danger is to support anyone who believes that we can be protected by locking up our minds along with our bodies and keeping us there by calling us enemies of the state without due process to correct the error. Democracy and freedom are fragile. We must protect them long before the threat to dismantle the legal protections forces an armed rebellion such as the American Revolution. We must protect the dissidents, not imprison them. We must save the enemies of the state when they are our only defense against the state. We must not allow tyranny to become legitimate.

Pseudo-Democrats may argue that terrorists must be locked up to prevent terrorism. No. Terrorists may be the only evidence that we are being terrorized. I fear the local newspaper when it does not detect and report the erosion of freedom and human rights. I fear my fellow citizens who continue to support the creep toward totalitarianism and dictatorship. Don’t interfere with your own right to vote. Get out and vote Democrat this election.

Wipe the slate and work the problem again.

as bad a film red dawn is, I think it has valuable lessons our president could have done well to learn. basically, if you invade my country, you’re gonna have to deal with me. I believe this is more or less a truism anywhere you go, iraq, iran, north korea.

I speculate that Timothy McVeigh (for instance) never heard of NPR, or “The Nation” or accessed Common Dreams—or had ANY contact with ANY other kind of media than the right-wing stuff. The crushing avalanche of the media is when this reader gets most discouraged.

Socialists crack me up!
Rabblerowser: your definition of Mussolini’s “corporatism” is virtually identical to Socialism: The state runs all economic enterprises.

And in ALL the Socialist states, past and present, who benefited from it? The few running it at the top!

In contrast to Paul kibble’s comment #28359, I find it pleasurable to read the progressive comments. This is because I was raised in New England but now live in the bible belt. It is extremely frustrating living here. what I have found epidemic is the inability of most people to reason. Most are indoctrinated at a young age and seem to prefer being told what to do and how to think. I have had debates with people where the facts are plain as day yet they refuse to acknowledge them. Fact and opinion seem to continually be confused. The kicker is that I am viewed as the one who can’t see clearly because I am not “born-again”. I have lived here for 15 years and there for a while it was difficult to explain to people back home what it was like until it went national! Now everyone understands!

To late fasism is already a mainstay in America has been for some time

When IRS agents are sent to bust in your door and traumatize your family at gun point trying to enforce a tax law that does not exist

thats right income tax is illigal in America
there was no way to pass a law to bring in income tax the tax upon wages unapportioned
what they did was to enforce the law as if it was passed which it wasn’t nor would it ever pass
SO right there we see facism alive and well
in America
electronic voting? whats with that unheard of in a free society no paper trail?
I could spew out many other cases why America is no longer free
but instead I will tell you why this has happened
it all happened because Americans are not worthy to be free or American your forefathers would have shot all of you
where were the patriots when the patriot act was passed
why were the streets not filled with 5 million people carrying clubs

Americans are only a shadow of their formerself frightened and huddled in a mass of weary dreary people
no its not to late yet but I figure by the time Mr BUSH is done bushwhacking you all it may as well be over

Most of the problems I saw in the U.S.M.C. as well as the U.S.N. seemed to come from a lack of any real education. It has always been a simple task to control an uneducated mass and have them bend to your will. The problems in the military are merely a mirror of our society. How many in America today are capable of critical thought?
How many know that “why” is a question that must always be asked?
Of course when Little Johnny can’t read or think it’s probably not a great idea to give him a gun.
Below are some excerpts from a book written many decades ago by a veteran of WWI. (I found it at the local library.)
The least amount of crime is always in the most educated areas, hmmmmmmmm.

From the book “A Page A Day” Re-written and published by Kenneth Adams, original title “A Minute A Day” by L.L.Castetter, a WWI veteran.
Original was written in 1936.

PREJUDICE        

Prejudice is a barrier to progress. It numbs the mind and closes its door. It is a mild form of insanity as it destroys reason. It blinds as a mist to the brighter things in life, hiding Truth and dimming the good. Prejudiced opinions hold the person instead of the person holding the opinion. It is purely a human characteristic. Animals may have passions as a beast, but humans have prejudices that make them devils. Race prejudice is ignorance. Prejudice poisoned Socrates, and assassinated Lincoln.
Prejudice is the enemy of charity, and is a kindly word for devil. To be full of prejudice is to be possessed of the devil. It makes people work harder by strangling Truth and destroying reason. It is the shadow of ignorance and it grows best in the uneducated regardless of how much schooling they have had. It is a form of weakness and in a class with superstition, meanness and fear. It is often used for lack of sense.

FREEDOM        

Real freedom comes by the practice of wisdom. Many think themselves free because they are controlled by their desires and conscious of their volitions, but ignorant of the cause by which they are led to wish and desire.
No persons are free who are not master of themselves. There is freedom to do what one likes, but a better freedom is in doing what one should. For those who are able, there is freedom to pursue their own good in their own way. Some are not fit to be free, and they never will really be free. Freedom is a curse to people who do not have self-control, or true courage. One must have knowledge and practice wisdom in order to be free and keep out of trouble and danger.
The only real freedom is justice, and only those who can think for themselves are likely to attract it to them. If we let others think for us we are followers. We are free to bargain with our time, talent, and labor. Our freedom only lasts if we make good bargains with each other.

AMERICANISM        

The word Americanism has an appeal to the pride of those who love America. America is looked upon by many as the nation of liberty and home of the free; the land of opportunity.
If one takes pride in being an American they should try to be worthy of the name. To be a real American means to have the spirits of America, and one is freedom. Americans have the freedoms to advance, and have used freedom to establish a representative government; a democracy. If we wish to be worthy of the name we must co-operate to help keep it so, and make it a good and safe place in which to live.
The term ugly American refers to the narrow minded, ignorant, and arrogant people whom voice their opinions without any knowledge of truth. We do not however have the most of these people, merely the loudest, when one enjoys basic freedoms, one can afford to yell.
America has always been much more than a place on this planet; it is an idea, a spirit.

#28543

Great comment.  Everybody on this site should read it.

Socialism or bust.

Not one of our federal security agencies works for the benefit of the people. Not the FBI, not the CI A, not the NSA, none of the dozens of security agencies work for us. They work for the plutocrats who own the Military Industrial Complex and the government.

Every security agency was formed and specifically designed to protect the ruling elite from the unruly masses. We are merely livestock to be managed, controlled and repressed to preserve the privilege, wealth and power of the ruling elite. The United States is not a democracy and never has been.

The Plutocrats control everything: the president, the politicians, the courts, the media, the military, and the police. Our freedoms are an illusion fostered by incessant propaganda devised to divide and control us. Our lives are sacrificed in wars to preserve and increase their wealth and power over the entire world, not to spread democracy. They fear and despise democracy because it threatens their dominance.

Now, for the first time our rulers have stepped from behind the curtain of secrecy to reveal themselves. Don’t delude yourself into thinking there will be any serious investigations or meaningful reforms to change anything if the Democrats take control. That’s not how capitalism was designed to work. Capitalism was designed to serve those who have the capital. The system is rigged to protect and preserve the system, and the plutocracy.

What we have in America today is unfettered capitalism evolving into fascism.

“Fascism should more properly be called ‘corporatism’ because it is the total merging of corporate and state power”
Benito Mussolini
A healthy dose of Socialism is the only way to tame unfettered capitalism, but realistically considering what they have to lose, the plutocracy backed up by the rabid right will no doubt feel the need to wipeout half the population to prevent that happening.

Those who insist on playing survival of the fittest according to THEIR OWN RULES ought to be reminded, that game has no rules.

“Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad” - Euripides

You’re right Stan we have taken your subject on a ride off the original course.
  The left and the right are doing a good job of keeping us divided and conquered.
  Corporations in today’s global world don’t care if you lose your job to someone who’ll do it for less.
  We could spend money on healthcare but we choose to spend it on war. The idea it’s for oil is a joke, or for a democratic Iraq, according to my research.
  The idea of peak oil production; Check out Vialls.com/wecontrolamerica/peakoil.html. It says Russia can drill 40000 feet and get oil from anywhere virtually.
  I believe the Bush administration is a trial run on how far we will be able to be pushed toward a Hitler style leader.
  Look at a movie on google video titled “terrorstorm”.
  Don’t forget Hitler was the leader of the national socialist workers party.
  Add it all up and you see that people are upset for many reasons, out-sourcing of jobs, corporations making more while workers make less etc.

We have met the enemy and he is us.

Oh, my goodness gracious.

First off, there is nothing wrong with capitalism as such. Also, there is nothing wrong with the socialist motivation.

It has been said, “If you are not a socialist before the age of 30, there is something wrong with your heart, but if you are still a socialist after the age of 30, there is something wrong with your mind.”

As with all ideals, there are those who distort the concept to introduce the extreme with disastrous consequences for the dream. Socialism can deteriorate to communist totalitarianism and capitalism can deteriorate to fascist dictatorship. Each can manufacture slogans that hide the truth of the distortions.

The extreme socialist would force change and destroy motivation to meet socialist norms. The extreme capitalist would punish progress that threatens capital. Democratic capitalism has advanced the American standard of living to the extreme that threatens our environment and human rights. Democratic socialism has made welfare a way of life for many and assured a steady supply of poor people dependent on welfare.

We in the center, both left leaning and right leaning, keep the ship of state on course. We detect when the party in power turns too far into the wind and when it lists too long in still water. We detect when the party in power is out of gas and when the party of power is full of gas.

We wield our power when most of us vote for a leader who lets us down and takes us too far in the direction we do not wish to go. Then we jump ship and vote the other party into power. We keep it in power until we detect too much of a good thing that threatens to destroy the foundations of our democracy. We do it again, and again, and again.

Right now, America is moving too fast toward fascism and violation of freedom and human rights and all that makes capitalism work for us. I remember in the past, we saw a drift toward socialism and the welfare state. We rescued ourselves from that debacle only to find ourselves in the clutches of an imperial president.

Time to do it again. Every middle of the roader and every left leaning do-gooder, vote Democrat. Get a vast majority of Democrats in both houses of congress. Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney together so that a real change can be had by forcing the constitutional amendment on succession to the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives. We cannot risk two more years of George Bush, or even a few months of Dick Cheney and one of his cronies as vice-president in line for president when Cheney is impeached after George Bush is sent back to Texas.

If that process brings into power a welfare leaning lunatic, do it again the other way. We in the middle hold the real power in America. Let us wield that power in the interest of a working capitalism where every American can have a decent job and earn a decent income without fearing a fascist dictator or a socialist totalitarian as president. Where savings mean something and where temporary or even permanent incapacity does not take away the quality of life. We can, with little effort and a bit of overproduction provide for the sick and the lame. And we can even motivate the lazy to earn at least a part of the cost of their living. But, we cannot afford a welfare state, or a fascist capitalist state.

The coming of the Fouth Reich is here.
We now know, that it is not the “eternal Jew” who was responsible for all of the problems of the world, as claimed by a red hot Catholics Adolph Hitler and Mel Gibson.

Just listen to the red hot Catholics, on Fox and talk radio and you will soon discover that all of the problems in this world are the fault of the “eternal Liberal.”

You know, people like Barbara Streisand, the New York Times, The Civil Liberties Union, Hollywood, etc.

Incredibly the “eternal Jew” has remained silent throughout. What Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, could not accomplish in Germany, has been so easily achieved here in America, by Rupert Murdoch. Silence of the Lambs!

One of the incidental pleasures of regularly perusing a site written by and (let’s admit) mainly for progressives is reading dissenting opinions from the loyal opposition on the right. Occasionally, these opinions are thoughtful and articulate;  primarily, they consist of a dull, shrill parrotings of whatever Repug squawking points the Bush Ministry of Propaganda has decided to inflict on us this week.

Two cases in point are Hondo and Chuck. As anyone who surfs this site knows, Hondo, of course, is a familiar figure of American freaklore, the Angry White Male who wastes far too much bandwidth shrieking about how these whacko liberals are destroying are Christian republic. Read something he wrote six months ago, then read something he wrote yesterday and you’ll find you’re reading the almost exactly same thing; as Led Zeplin used to say, The Song Remains the Same. He comes here out of boredom or frustration or God knows what other unfathomable motive (he’d say, hilariously,  to provide “teachable moments’) A self-professed twice-borner* himself, Hondo has about as much in common with Jesus as Hitler,  whose crazed, foaming-at-every-orifice style he’s managed to replicate in his posts right down to a spit-soaked “T.”  Well, it’s some kind of achievement—-in Dubya’s new fave author Shakespeare’s words, “A poor thing, but mine own.”

Then there’s Chuck. Dripping with equal amounts of scattershot venom and Boy-Scoutish piety, impervious to sanity, much less reason, willfully ignorant of any culture or history except his own,  he comes hissing and clanging onto this string, eyes glittering with dim wit whenever he thinks he’s scored a killer debating point.

Except that he’s not debating. Although he clearly deludes himself that he’s just a Tough-Minded Realist, what Chuck’s doing instead is faithfully reciting the litany from God the Father George’s Book of Common Prayer.  Like all authoritarian faux “patriots” who equate any form of dissent against a particular administration’s policies with treason, Chuck has a need to Believe at any cost. Thus his first article of faith: the Bush/neocon Mafiosi   have “taken the failed policies of previous small thinking liberal war/appeasement makers and replaced it with a region building effort. In terms of scale, the problem needed a big solution and it is getting one.”

Does it get any better than this? With a majority of “small-thinking” Americans (and a growing number of their military counterparts) condemning the war as the latest disastrous version of Manifest Destiny, with Iraq sinking deeper into civil war, here’s Chuckie boy praising the most ill-informed and heedless administration in American history for its Big-Picture Middle Eastern foreign policy. (By the way, chuck, annexation of a region in order to expropriate its oil supplies—-explicitly identified as a “prize” by Cheney in a 1999 Haillburton speech—-isn’t quite the same as region, or nation, building, which neocons specifically repudiated as a goal in the run-up the war.)

When I first read the foregoing, I thought that it was Stephen Colbert trying to pull off one of his deadpan send-ups of Bushthink, this time by using a sock puppet named “chuck.” But no, this isn’t satire; it’s The Real Thing. Life once again imitates art—-very bad art, but still. . .

And it gets better. “In 30 to 40 years, the daily minutia [he means “minutiae,” but grammar and spelling are nuances that Rightie ideologues seldom bother with] of a car bomb or a jihadist prisoner will be a footnote, as will the feeble protests of the aging hippie generation who has the lowest stake in the outcome of the Middle East.”

“In 30 or 40 years. . .” This let’s-take-the-long-view approach is, of course, a muffled echo of King G’s pooh-poohing the current violence in Iraq as a “comma,” although increasingly it looks like an endless string of ellipsis points (“. . . . . . .”). Never mind all those unsightly bodies that keep inconveniently piling up in that “footnote” (which now takes up the whole page)—-they’re a glitch in the glorious march to reshaping the “Arab street” to Main Street, U.S.A. Ironically, this is a variant of the old Leninist saw that in order to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs. Who said Commies and Repugs had nothing in common?

As for Chuckie’s Future-Schlock scenario, as George Sand once wrote (as I remember), “There is a cast of mind that habitually turns its attention to the vague and remote, to the far-off,  to what lies down the road to escape the horrors of the present.” Or as Scarlett O’Hara said, “Tomorrow is another day.” Except for those nearly 3000 dead G.I.’s and almost 50,000 Iraqi civilians, there is no tomorrow. Wonder Chuckie “anticipated” their “sunset with glee”, too.

Now excuse me while I wipe the Seed of Chuckie off my screen (latex gloves required).

*And he’s a teacher, too.  J.C.’s “Suffer the little children” should be immediately amended to “Suffer, little children.”

The similarities with the 30’s in Germany are chilling: cynical corporate and military interests mobilizing an extremist class on that had heretofore been left (by tacit agreement on the rules of political engagement) on the margins. How will be turn back now that Pandora’s box has been opened?

http://www.watchw.org/

WW: You’re right about the problem with peak oil. If Hubbert is right, the whole pattern of modern oil-based civukisation is going to crumble when our go-juice starts running out. The wars we see around the world fit in with that; a scramble to grab what’s left of a dwindling resource. If and when the hard economic times hit, that will make it easier for fascism to take hold in the U.S. After all, it was the Great Depression that led to the rise of Hitler and Franco. Who’s to blame for Mussolini is anybody’s guess…

I saw a good film on peak oil titled “Crude Awakening” at the Melbourne International Film Festival two months ago. (It’s odd how much American media is shown down here. We really are the 800-pound gorilla of the planet.) It’s all about the implications of the Hubbert Curve, and what that will mean to mankind. Its main speaker isn’t a liberal like Al Gore, but a Republican Congressman named Roscoe Bartlett from Maryland. If any of you get a chance, see “Crude Awakening.” It will make you lose more sleep than “Inconvenient Truth.”

And Stan, as far as downplaying the gender basis if fascism, face it: most of the people who comment here are male. It’s hard to analyse our own BS. Can’t see the forest for the testosterone. I will say the world would be a less fascistic place if women ran things. I used to work as a nurse in the Florida state prison system. Who were the murderers, robbers, other violent dregs of humanity? Men, of course. Perhaps what’s needed to save the planet is to eliminate 95% of our sex. It would certainly suck if you weren’t included in the lucky 5, though…

Chuck, your post #28062 - How interesting your name connects to a porn site. Are you another Republican who secretly adores sex and doesn’t want anyone to know? I found your post interesting and your link even more so. It confirmed my idea that fat old white guys like you should be euthanized to purge the gene pool so lovely young ladies don’t end up with your evil spawn in their bellies. Good luck on your way down to hell.

Chuck,

What you call “today’s political leadership” is exactly the same age as Stan or older.  Some of them (Bush and Cheney) got out of fighting in the Vietnam war; others were in it.  It is sometimes said that today’s political leadership is, through the war in Iraq and beyond, trying to make up for the loss of Vietnam.  And they are making the same mistakes as were made by the US in Vietnam, only worse.  They want to build a big empire, “The New American Century” fast, by military means.  They did not even expect resistance in Iraq, which was enormously stupid.  At least the American leaders who got us into Vietnam knew there was armed resistance.  Plus they were fighting a real, named enemy via Vietnam; the name of the enemy was the Soviet Union and “communism” both or which actually existed (and still exist), as organized forms of government. Our guys lost because they were fighting other people on those other people’s ground.  Their alternative was to “bomb (Vietnam) back into the Stone Age” - but if they had actually done that, or tried, they would have caused millions of more lives to be lost, including American lives, and they would have started a Third World War, because North Vietnam was by no means politically isolated.  Plus, as you say, “Malnourished, poorly equiped and lacking education, the Vietnamese demonstrated that their will was bigger than yours.”  Bigger than whose again?  Certainly bigger than that of the American draftee footsoldiers, many of whom never wanted to go to war in the first place. And bigger than that of the American leaders at that time, whose wills were pretty strong, I have to say.  But when people are fighting for their lives, their homes, and their kin, their will can be pretty strong.

But even this simple lesson, our American leaders have not learned.  The Iraqi insurgents are fighting for the very same thing that the Vietnamese fought for - their lives, their homes, and their kin.  The threat for them is not distant and abstract, it is real and immediate.  They are killing more of our soldiers, faster than they did before.  To save their own lives, all our soldiers have to do is go home.  Which, if they have any sense, they will do, regardless of what their commanders say.

The “region-building effort” to which you refer is the projected next part of the effort at empire building.  If you have spent time in Iraq, and/or if you read the news, you will see that this effort is failing monumentally.  Through their invasion of Iraq, Bush and his crew have made things vastly worse there, and ruined their chances of gaining real allies, other than Israel, in the mid-east.  The American soldiers in Iraq are ill-equipped and badly trained.

The second biggest mistake America made in Vietnam was initiating a military offensive there in the first place.  The first biggest mistake was escalating the war, ultimately spreading it into other countries.

So, how exactly is our current American leadership doing things better?  How are they ensuring our freedom and our safety?  In fact, they have severely curtailed our freedoms, and according to the latest published US intelligence reports, they have not made us any safer.  They have stengthened the Islamic Jihad by encouraging new people to join it.  They have made enemies out of former friends.

You predict that “in 30 to 40 years, the daily minutia of a car bomb or a jihadist prisoner will be a footnote.”  I am inclined to agree with you on that one, because our problems then will far surpass any posed by car bombs or jihadist prisoners.  In fact, our problems now far surpass such things.  But our country is putting so much energy into those minutiae that it is ignoring the real problems, the big ones - from massive poverty to hurricanes to the probability that oil will cease to be a viable energy source.  They are in fact making these problems worse.

So, hang around and see what things are like in thirty or forty years.  Will America have a strong and secure empire, and control over the middle east?  Or ... something no American ever wanted?  I’ll bet you everything I own that the former will not come to pass.  I hope the latter does not come to pass, either.  Stan and people like him are trying to stave off catastrophes the likes of which you cannot even contemplate.  Stan has seen some realities that you in your youth have never seen.  And he has an excellent memory, and he is very intelligent.  In hand-to-hand combat, he could probably beat you to the ground in two minutes.  Do you feel threatened by such a man?  Is that why you, like a little dog behind a strong fence, are barking at him so ferociously?  Don’t worry, baby, Stan will never hurt you.  But the master you trust just might.

I’ve read somewhere that PEAK OIL is a myth since there are other untapped sources and also, what’s to stop oil companies diversifying into alternative fuels when the opportunity arises?

Anyway. The oil companies were advising the new Thai administration not to replace 95 Octane fuel with gasohol but the Thai administration literally told them to get stuffed. See below.

Charles

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Business/11Oct2006_biz35.php

Three firms to build ethanol plant
A sugar producer, an oil refiner and a zinc mining company have jointly formed a new company called Maesod Clean Energy Co to build an ethanol plant in northern Thailand, the companies said yesterday.

Padaeng Industry Plc, Southeast Asia’s only zinc smelter operator, Mitr Phol Sugar Group, the country’s largest sugar producer and exporter, and Thai Oil Plc, the country’s largest oil refiner, will build the 1.5-billion-baht facility in Mae Sot, Tak province.

Commercial operations for the factory, which will produce 100,000 litres of ethanol a day from sugarcane juice, are expected to begin in 2009. By then, demand for ethanol is forecast to increase due to government promotion of gasohol 95, a 10% ethanol blend that is scheduled to replace Octane 95 at the pumps early next year.

‘‘The venture will lift Thaioil’s total ethanol production capacity to 600,000 litres a day in 2009 and enhance our business opportunities in terms of having more options for raw materials,’’ said Viroj Mavichak, Thaioil’s managing director.

In addition to the latest factory, Thaioil is now constructing a US$150-million ethanol factory, scheduled to become operational in 2008, that produces 500,000 litres per day from cassava roots. The company, which is 49.54% owned by the state-run oil giant PTT, plans to buy all the ethanol from both projects.

The joint-venture company was established with capital of 100 million baht. Padaeng Industry holds a 35% stake in the company; Petrogreen Co, a subsidiary of Mitr Phol Sugar Group also holds 35%, while Thaioil’s stake is 30%.

Many local farmers have joined a crop cultivation programme supported by Padaeng. It granted 18 million baht worth of essential farming facilities for a pilot cultivation area of 3,000 rai where farmers could learn new techniques.

Maesod Clean Energy plans to enlarge the cultivation area of this project by about 10,000 rai in the initial phase, and ultimately to 60,000 rai.

Isara Vongkusolkit, president of Mitr Phol Sugar Group, said his conglomerate was confident Padaeng’s management team could run the ethanol plant efficiently and without hurting the environment and surrounding communities.

Tak deputy governor Cherdsak Chusri said the ethanol plant would make farmers confident their products would be sold.

Shares of Padaeng (PDI) and Thaioil (TOP) closed unchanged on the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday at 36.25 baht and 61 baht respectively.

I swear between the rightwing christo-fascists like Chuck, and leftwing marxist-fascist like Malcolmartin throwing in their useless fantasy pipe-dreams I don’t know whether to laugh or puke!

Both are like Harley posers: “Why dontcha get a REAL motorcycle. Harleys are the best!”  Oh, yeah? Best at WHAT? They are over-priced, over-weight, underpowered, under-suspended and un-reliable.  But like Chuck defending Bush despite EVERYONE else seeing his failures he insist “No, Bush is RIGHT and you all are wrong!” 

Based on WHAT?  The economy is stalled, inflation is back, interest rates are sky-rocketing, ALL restrictions on companies’ abuse of employees, accounting procedures and the environment have been lifted. The military is a mess—they are CUTTING funding for military hospitals and veteran bennies.  The war in Iraq is getting worse and worse, and Bush’s disdain for North Korea for 5 years and 9 months has just blown up in his face like a trick cigar!  Meanwhile, his ONLY reaction is to say “Let me take more of your rights so I can keep you safe.” Funny, I don’t feel safer—I live near New York City and there has been NOTHING done to protect the chem plants here in New Jersey, or the rail lines that pass by them and the refinery tanks. 

Containers and the ports here are STILL a HUGE hole for security—and all Bush could do was sell the port security services to—don’t you remember?—an ARAB state!  They spend 5x as much per person to keep Wyomingians safe than New Yorkers—I don’t remember any planes crashing into Wyoming—do you?

But still they need to take away our rights—and they have NO intention of returning them.

Then there’s Malcolmartin quoting from Marx as if he was Nostradamus—Marx was using obsolete economic methods (obsolete even in HIS time) to try to prove what he hoped to be true.  Capitalism about to fail? Communists have been saying that since 1848—they are like the guy with the long hair with the sign “Repent! The world is ending next week”  Then it doesn’t, and he re-writes the sign.  Wake up, Malcolm! It’s all the MARXIST regimes that have failed.  Only Cuba and North Korea are still holding out—China is capitalist now, while paying lip-service to Marx.  North Korea can’t feed its people.  ONLY Cuba is moderately successful—because it can sell sugar, rum, and tobacco to everyone BUT the US.

And capitalism seems to be doing VERY well in Europe!  As countries come into the EU, they get healthy and prosperous. I remember, not too long ago, the Republic of Ireland was in DIRE straits—people were leaving and the economy was in tatters.  Now it’s THE place to be in Europe for business.  No, Capitalism is healthy and doing fine in Europe, Canada, Brazil, South East Asia, etc.  Only the US, where we do NOT have capitalism but a weird, variant socialism the protects the RICH and INCOMPETENT (See George Bush) and REWARDS them for failure (see Michael Eisner’s Golden Parachute) is the economy struggling.

I suggest that you put down Marx’s Capital and pick up the New York Times instead—vary your reading a little!

So here we have it: The RightWingNut and the LeftWingNut, both so caught up in their theories and fantasies that they have left reality behind.  Why don’t both of you spend your time concentrating on the Roswell, NM and the aliens who landed there—and the cover-up of that…

(chuckle).

I am a bit discouraged, I have to say it, that one of the main points of this dig—the gendered aspect of fascism—that has consistently been sidelined or overlooked in almost every past account of actual fascism (as opposed to the US now, where we are NOT living under fascism yet), continues to be ignored.  A couple of the women who have commented take note of it (thanks y’all), but even aside from the handful of wingnuts like Wolf and Chuck, those who seem to generally respond well to the monograph avoid the gender thing the same way abled people avoid looking at disabled folks.  It’s a mixture of denial and not knowing exactly what to say or do.

On my own blog, I see this quite often, and worse.  The discourse (here and there) against fascism or its latency takes on a typically macho voice… and I include there the quasi-religious verbiage of leftist political cults.  It is so linear, so sure of itself, and so preoccupied with showing that it is not sissified.  It does egregious things like describe physical courage as “having balls,” and political opportunism with “whores” (who are, in reality, among the most violently exploited victims in the world)... never even having a sense that this kind of language contains within it the devaluation of women and continues to assert a kind of universalized male prerogative.

This very manner of moving in forcefully to take up space is immensely intimidating (and painfully familiar) to a lot of women I know, which disinclines them to participate at all.  A shame, really.  In places where this is supressed (I selectively censor my blog, as do others, thankfully), the voices, standpoints, and stories of women have a lot to offer that is frequently fresh, insightful, and extremely important.

Within 10 years, America will slip into the most incendiary period in the history of this country making the Civil War and the Revolutionary War look like arguments between kindergarten children.  Read below and weep, America.  The OIL companies, Bush, Cheney, et al., have all sold us the biggest lie ever told.  Bush & Cheney have personal family wealth tied up in oil!!!!  If everyone were to find out the truth about peak oil, then NO ONE in their right mind would invest in oil companies anymore, rather they would take their money out and invest in other companies who are researching alternative fuels.  That means—BUSH AND CHENEY AND CRONIES’ PERSONAL WEALTH GOES FROM GAZILLIONS TO ZILCH OVERNIGHT. All their cronies in the oil business and all their friends who have millions tied up in the oil business were scared s-itless of what is about to hit the world—-PEAK OIL.  If Gore had gotten elected, he would have moved America slowly toward alternative fuels and people would have moved their investments slowly from oil companies to alternative fuel companies.  NOW, we are at the peak oil point where oil companies will no longer be pumping oil because sweet oil will be extinct and the only oil left drilling for will be the very expensive kind to pull out of the ground.  As a consequence, the actual costs of drilling it will far outweigh the profits.  They would have to increase the cost per gallon so high that no one will be able to afford it!  When Americans FINALLY WAKE UP and they FINALLY KNOW that corporations have been sending all the jobs overseas, soaking up outrageous profits, raking in gazilions and putting them in their rich man’s pockets while ignoring the interests of the middle and poor class, then Americans are going to revolt unlike anything you have ever seen.  No one will be able to afford $15.00 or $20.00 for a gallon gas.  Who will be able to pay $10.00 for an ear of corn or $20.00 for a tomato or $25.00 for a gallon of milk because the cost of shipping it (cost of gas to drive the truck to get to the destination) will be prohibitive.  WAKE UP AMERICA!  If our Congress, our past presidents and our CURRENT BUSH/CHENEY COMPANY had been honest with us instead of pulling a Reichstag 9/11, killing thousands so they could lie and drum up pro-war sentiment about the fallacious story of WMDs in Iraq so that they could steal the oil in Iraq and then move on to Iran and make war with them and steal their oil too and then take over the Middle East, if our Government had been honest with us, we would not be facing the most outrageous Depression in the history of the world.  READ BELOW AND WEEP.  DARK, DARK, DARK DAYS ARE AHEAD.  First article is a speech given to Congress on 2/06 about the coming OIL PEAK.  Second web site will give you all the keys you need to understand the links between 9/11 Reichstag, Oil Peak, Bush/Cheney, oil company avarice, etc.

PEAK OIL:
http://www.peakoil.net/Publications/PeakOilSpclOrder#15TextCharts020806Low.pdf

http://www.oilempire.us/

http://wolf.readinglitho.co.uk/index.html

http://www.gravmag.com/oil.html

http://hubbert.mines.edu/news/Campbell_01-2.pdf

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/campbell/

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/Cleveland/openletter.htm

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/Cleveland/bushpolicy.htm

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/campbell/TheHeartOfTheMatter.pdf

http://www.hubbertpeak.com/campbell/Campbell_02-3.pdf

Who will make or lead the revolution that brings down capitalism and replaces it with socialism? Working people or course!

By looking around at the political landscape right now it is clear that it won’t happen today or tomorrow, but the objective conditions that will give rise to a worker’s uprising are on the horizon. It is on our way to that day that leaders will emerge from the ranks of the working class. Meanwhile, petty bourgeois will be on the sidelines wringing its hands and nervously murmuring, “Oh, I don’t know about this, that old system wasn’t so bad.” Refer to Malcolm X’s proverb about the House Negroe and the Field Negroe.

That’s the way history unfolds. Nat Turner and John Brown moved courageously against the institution of slavery but too soon in relation to objective conditions. Just a year after Brown’s futile raid on Harper’s Ferry the US erupted in the civil war which did abolish slavery. Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X would have lived and died in relative obscurity had they been born a few years earlier or later than they were.

When it is time for capitalism to be ushered to its funeral, class-conscious women and men will be its pallbearers. Those who survive the fight will then establish a new socialist economy and a government where the rich have been removed as our masters. That new reality will give humankind at least a chance to live into the future on this planet. A chance that does not exist under capitalism.

Stan,
The Vietnam era type soldier mentality may be shared by you and your “Band of Losers”, but do not confuse your experience of being led to battle by dimwited dems and pointy headed numbers wonks like McNamera with that of today’s soldier.

Today’s political leadership utilizes the military having successfully deconstructed the failed policies of previous small thinking liberal war/appeasement makers and replaced it with a region building effort. In terms of scale, the problem needed a big solution and it is getting one.

In 30 to 40 years, the daily minutia of a car bomb or a jihadist prisoner will be a footnote, as will the feeble protests of the aging hippie generation who has the lowest stake in the outcome of the Middle East. You had your chance. It’s our turn to insure our freedom and our safety. George Bush did not pilot 4 airplanes into our populace. The challenges we face today are no tougher than what our grnadparents had to do to stop Stalin and Hitler. They were not confused about why they needed to protect America.

The only mass of “angry downtrodden white men who carry guns and grudges” that I have encountered is the only generation in U.S. History that has ever lost a war. Malnourished, poorly equiped and lacking education, the Vietnamesse demonstrated that their will was bigger than yours. Your Black Flag of Failure is your banner of defeatist thinking. Having been provided every advantage that America could offer, you spit in her face.

Your generation was spoiled as children, doped out as adolescents, self indulgent as adults, and irresponsible having amassed wealth and political influence in your silver years. I anticipate with glee your sunset.

Re Comment #27598 by Robert B. Livingston:

“Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros”? [For those who never studied Latin or attended the University of South Carolina: “Learning humanizes and does not permit cruelty.”] Self-flattering but, alas,  untrue. There is no cause-and-effect relationship between a higher level of learning (not quite the same as “education”) and a reduced capacity for cruelty.

What is “learning”? There is a difference between information and knowledge, just as there is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Most of today’s university undergraduates are lucky if they can acquire accurate information, much less comprehensive knowledge, in their two-to-four years of training. As for wisdom—-or, for that matter, a capacity for critical thinking—-that’s one of those incidentals that you may stumble across somewhere along the way.

As George Steiner repeatedly claimed in his operatic denunciations of the “failures” of Western humanism, it was entirely possible for the Nazi commandant of a concentration camp to quote a line from Goethe or hum the strains of a Beethoven quartet while marching Jews into the gas chambers. Too, one remembers hyperliterate Ezra Pound’s celebration of the decimation of Soviet troops in WWII as an opportunity to put “more meat on the Russian steppes.” And Robert Macnamara could quote Shakespeare with the best of them while orchestrating the death of thousands in Vietnam.

The list does go on. Simple human decency can’t be conferred by a piece of sheepskin. Exposure to what Matthew Arnold called “all the best that has been thought and done” may make us kinder, gentler, more thoughtful, but the ways this process works are, frankly, mysterious and far from universal.

But, yes, Stan Goff exemplifies that process in an exemplary fashion.

It takes a special type of courage and introspection, Stan, to have undergone the political transformation that you have experienced—Bravo !!

For those who might not know, the US has a fairly long history of violent right-wing repression of those who hold political views which are quite different from their own. Most of us know about the demagogue Senator Joe McCarthy, but…

How many reading this web-site know about the “Red Scare” of 1919-1920??

How many know of a former Attorney General named A. Mitchell Palmer??

How many know about the still-born “Business Plot” of 1933-1934??

How many know who General Smedley Butler is??     

In the 2005 documentary film, “Why We Fight,” Gore Vidal referrs to America as “the United States of Amnesia.” We simply do not know our own history, because we see no value in learning about (and remembering) our own history.

The philosopher George Santayana once said that “those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.”

Sad, but true…

While I agree with malcolmartin’s statement

“Marx’s brilliant science-based vision can no longer be challenged on the facts. It has and is going to continue to unfold just as he forecast. Capitalism is doomed.”

I wonder who’s going to make or lead and that revolution to bring capitalism down and to replace it with socialism.

Looking at the dominance of the paleoconservative and libertarian right wing in analysing and criticising the Iraq war, US imperialist aggression and so on, it seems a reactionary, isolationist, racist outcome could follow in the United States after the disengagement and withdrawl of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, which would certainly be welcomed.

The left in comparison is weak and hardly provides any new analyses of the current situation apart from statements of condemnation and solidarity with the Iraqi resistance.

Only exception is the International Answer Coalition which is doing good in organising anti-war protests.

Hi Frank.  It is neither the cost of labor nor the cost of resources that causes the cost of living to be so high.  It is the need for corporations to make profits over and above the cost of labor and so forth.  Moreover, for a corporation to stay viable in the present world system, it must make more and more profits and get bigger and bigger.  It cannot just stay the same, manufacturing (let us say, ball-peen hammers) in the same way each year, at the same cost each year, making the same profit each year, even if there is a constant and eternal demand for ball-peen hammers.  The corporation has to grow.  The reason it has to grow is that it must please its stockholders, who want the value of the company to increase, which is why they bought the stocks in the first place. There is your free lunch right there. 

I know this is an extreme oversimplification, but it is the way things work as far as I have been able to ascertain after some study.  Things did not always work this way, evidently.  There was a time in living memory when most companies aimed to make money by pleasing their customers, making better mousetraps, as it were.  But at a certain point, the big corporations changed to wanting to please their stockholders first and foremost, and the division between haves and have-nots grew at an accelerated rate.

The pharmaceutical companies that make the medicines of which you speak MUST grow and make increasing profits year after year.  Part of those profits are ploughed back into research, but most of those profits go into shareholders’ pockets.  That is the system.  That is why medicine and healthcare have become unaffordable to many.  Pharmaceutical companies have to make big profits, HMOs have to make big profits, insurance companies have to make big profits.  If they did not, they would collapse.  It is, as I said, just the way things work.

We who have money to spend get marvelous products out of pharmaceutical companies.  But a lot of those products we do not need, and they do not necessarily improve the quality of our lives.  And lifesaving products and the means to deliver those products are out of the reach of most people.

This state of the world is not good.  There are other ways to do things.  The profit motive is not all there is to life.  You mention Cuba.  You say the quality of life there is “not attractive.”  I guess it is not attractive to you.  But I’ll bet it would be very attractive to a lot of the folks who used to live in New Orleans, to cite one obvious example.

And, Frank, there are millions of people who live in situations where no amount of hard work and no amount of “competence” will keep the wolf from the door.  It is not their fault – it is not because they are stupid or lazy or weak that they can’t make it out of poverty.  It is because of the situation in which they were born and must live.  And when the economy is set up to make the rich richer, it means that some children on the other side of the world, or even just the other side of town, die of eminently treatable diseases.  Are those children dispensable? Or might we not need just that particular child someday?
You say, “Those who cannot compete with others on an equal level must settle for less of the total productive effort.”  I’ve heard that before.  It is the neoliberal bottom line.  But I also hear the spirit of Ayn Rand speaking in those words.  Like the race goes to the swift and the battle goes to the strong.  But in life it doesn’t always work that way.  If you think you are better off than others because you are smarter and stronger and harder working than them – sorry but you are living in a Nietzschean fantasy world.

You say, “We care for the young and receive a compensation in human value and enjoyment of life. We care for the old and receive a compensation in expectation that we, too, will be cared for in our old age.”  But actually, things don’t always work out that way, either.  Our children are not always kind to us, they don’t always do what we expect, they don’t always make us happy. Often they make us very unhappy. We are not compensated by our children and they do not owe us compensation.  We care for them because we love them, and love means giving with no expectation of return.  We care for the old for the same reason.  It’s a whole different thing from the profit motive, you see?

“The quality of life in Cuba is not attractive.” Says who Frank? Have you asked any of the 48 million American working people without access to health care? Frank you seem to be impressed with your ability to apply Hegelian and Maxist dialectics to your political polemics. So tell me the questions engendered by this world view.

Fueled by the Industrial Revolution the capitalist system broke the brutish shackles of feudalism on the people of that day. At the same time capitalism birthed the only force capable of destroying it—the working class. Nascent capitalism enjoyed explosive growth and it spawned revolutions around the world, including the American Revolution. The young and dynamic economic system found that a bourgeois democracy was the most fertile soil for development. The United States and several other leading industrial countries adopted this form of government.

Since its birth, capitalism has been able to provide the American people with several powerful incentives to go along with a fabric of lies about itself and cool the class struggle. Five percent of the world’s population is invited to consume 30% of the world’s resources by way of imperialism. White Americans are invited to enjoy a disproportionate share of the national wealth by way of racism. A very comfortable niche is provided to politicians, intellectuals, academics, bureaucrats, and entrepreneurs in the narrow strata of society Marx called the petty bourgeois. But that deal with the capitalist devil is becoming more and more difficult to keep! The U.S. is being integrated into a global economy as capitalism searches for the lowest possible wage and the greatest possible profit. The process is steadily reshaping ours into a subsistence-wage service economy. The jobs of elite industrial workers, from auto and steelworkers to airline pilots, are disappearing across the country along with their health benefits and pensions. Even white Americans are now feeling the pain of a declining standard of living.

The sad truth is that the petty bourgeois, to whom life in Cuba is unattractive, cannot defeat the capitalist ruling class! They are a timid and passive group who, in this time for warriors, gather at the gates of the palace to nag and complain essentially to each other. They worry over things like “comfort” while death is dealt to working people from New Orleans to Baghdad. There are scores of Internet websites, magazines, newspapers, radio programs and networks like AirAmerica Radio, and some small television networks where liberal, left, progressive, and other commentators show up to whine out loud. They rail against the outrages and inhumanity of the U.S. government and the Bush Administration. They point out the duplicity, the corruption, the hypocrisy, the inhumanity, and the utter criminality loosed in the world today but to no useful end since capitalism will not be reformed nor shamed to death. Pointing out the defects of capitalism has become as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. The ruling class brushes its liberal democratic critics off like gnats as long as they stay away from the third rail. But let one of these voices dare mention unity based on working class-consciousness and a mobilization to strike at profits and great danger would shortly thereafter visit.

No matter the danger, it must begin to be spoken by our worker-warrior-poets: socialism is the only way humankind will live into the distant future on this planet. Only a working class in power will see to the end of this madness and willingly share our available resources to insure our survival on this planet. Some others will be forced by the rest to settle for only their fair share for several generations until the system takes root and communism evolves.

Comment #27731 by peggy on 10/08

Peggy, my method is to ask questions in a way that leads to contradicting answers in order to get at the real question and direct us to the real answers without the prejudice and foolish assumptions.

Ask yourself who would pay for meds that cannot be manufactured because research cannot be paid for by the user of the meds because they are too poor to be able to pay for them at a price that includes the cost of development, manufacture, transportation, and distribution. Even if government paid for research, development, manufacture, transportation, and distribution without a profit motive to justify the delayed satisfaction involved in commercial activities of all kinds, the cost would not be lower, but much higher in hours of labor, risks, and quality. That has been adequately demonstrated in socialist and communist experiments. Government in business is not efficient enough to compete with private enterprise effort.

Though medicine in Cuba is available to all at no personal commitment and cost in money, the price in loss of personal freedom and economic opportunities is high. The quality of life in Cuba is not attractive.

All human life is maintained at an expense in labor time and resources. Charity is limited to the amount of excess production that can be had without paying for it. Payment for charity has to come from the labor of those working. Management and entrepreneur ship tend to increase total production from labor time by motivations to produce more than the value of the compensation in order to provide for other burdens of business, government and charity.

Without the lure of riches, no commercial activities of any kind are undertaken. The other choice is a state of nature, and we all know what happens to an animal who cannot forage for its own food. Charity is rare in nature raw in tooth and claw. The goal of a modern nation is to provide incentives for cooperative ventures to meet our needs and expectations. When expectations are more expensive than the value of the contributions to the general effort, people are poor. A poor person is one who cannot produce enough of value by his labor to exchange for his consumption. A lazy person chooses not to produce, while a poor person could not even if he were willing. The natural poor are the young, old, sick and lame. Lazy poor is not a natural state, though a consequence of being ‘naturally’ lazy. Incompetence is another matter. Those who cannot compete with others on an equal level must settle for less of the total productive effort. They provide a positive motivation for others by a negative compensation in competition.

Yes, money has value, but only in so far as the money can purchase the product of labor. Everything consumed must be produced before consumption. Payment for production must be paid for before production, transportation, and distribution. All labor contains a measure of future value. It is the delay between the capital form and the consumption form of money that creates the need for venture capital to bridge the time element. That is what is lacking in the assumption that medicine can be free to those who need it. Only if the consumer of the medicine has contributed enough labor to the economy before need or can contribute enough labor to the economy after the need can he afford the total cost of his need and be satisfied by the availability of the medicine in his time of need.

It has been demonstrated that the total effort needed to provide all the necessities for one person can easily be met by an individual in his lifetime and still have time for leisure and renewal. Human economy, which is human ecology, has developed the means to bridge the times of negative productivity. We care for the young and receive a compensation in human value and enjoyment of life. We care for the old and receive a compensation in expectation that we, too, will be cared for in our old age.

There is no such thing as a free lunch, or a free pill. Cheap medicine, cheap food, and cheap labor, but no cheap cost of living without a reduced living standard.

When we live in a society where “macho” people are revered, and kindness and compassion are considered weaknesses, it is already too late.

How are you going, Justaguy? I agree with you about Howard and fascism. I knew he was of the Bush camp when I came down here, but I have been surprised at how far the Libs have been pushing the economic fascism with things like industrial relations “reform,” media ownership concentration and now a proposal to federalise the education system. I blame Murdoch for accelerating the rise of fascism in the U.S. by using Fox “News” to appeal to the worst instincts of Americans.

The thing that gives me hope here is not “Bumbler” Beazley but the fact that Aussies are more educated and independent than Yanks. Plus the government here is too disorganised and lazy to be properly fascistic. Full-time oppression would get in the way of having a smoko…

There are a couple of shorts by Jacqueline Salloum that, especially when shown back to back, do an excellent job of showing how our popular media contributes to racism.  Both can be viewed at http://www.jsalloum.org/films.html.

The first, “Planet of the Arabs,” (10 min.) is a montage of Hollywood scenes. The second, “Arabs A-Go-Go” (2 min.) is in a similar format, but with scenes from Middle Eastern films. 

The Hollywood male revenge fantasy film genre is indeed a main culprit. No surprise there. But the actual numbers are still hard to swallow - as Salloum points out on her website, “Out of 1000 films that have Arab & Muslim characters (from yrs 1896 to 2000) 12 were positive depictions, 52 were even handed and the rest of the 900 and so were negative.” Equally disturbing is the age at which children first get exposed/brainwashed into these stereotypes – one of the clips in “Planet of the Arabs” is from The Muppet Show.

Re: Comment #27671 by Frank Goodman, Sr. on 10/08

Frank, I guess you already know that the fact you point out constitutes not a contradiction in my argument, but a sad paradox:  Human life is cheap but the cost of living is high.

I would say that the cost of living is high BECAUSE mere human life is held so cheap.  In some parts of the world, a human life is valued at less than the water that a person has to buy (but cannot afford to buy) to keep alive.  People are dying for lack of the water that is pumped out of their land and sold to others who have the money to buy it. See articles by Sainath et al on this topic.

Similarly, in the US, people are dying for lack of the medical care that they cannot afford and that the US government will not pay for to enable them to keep alive and become healthy.

So, we might say that the lives of poor folks are cheap, but the lives of people with money are of value, BECAUSE they have money.  They can PAY for their meds and so forth, and therefore they are valued because the money they have is valued.  If/when they run out of money, they are on the street. This is exactly how corporations make profits.

You know this already, I’m sure, but I thought I would spell it out just in case other readers don’t get it.

DO ANY OF YOU KNOW THE TERMS, “PSYCOPOLITICS”, OR, “THE PROTOCOLS”???????????????????????????????
WHY DON’T YOU GOOGLE THEM, BONE UP, AND ***THEN***
POST YOUR COMMENTS…STAN??? I THINK YOU’RE A RAT WHO’S JUST TRYIONG TO SELL SOME BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALSO, YOU CAN GO TO YOUTUBE AND VIEW ALL OF “PROHATEDEBATE”...WHICH I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH. OH, AND…SHOW SOME SACK, STAN…POST MY COMMENT.              WOLF B’SHANNON
          IN THE AWAKENING OF WHITE AMERICA!

Protofascism is definitely upon us all, courtesy of the nexus of corporate, media, MIC and, not least, Likudnik Israeli interests.

But Bukko, Howard is taking us down the self same path, I won’t be rushing home to the 52nd State of the Union anytime soon. Murdoch and the Israeli lobby have an even stronger grip in our home than in the US, and electing a Beazely led Labor Party won’t change a thing. Heard of Labor Friends of Israel?

There’s always New Zealand.

We left the U.S. five years ago, not out of cowardice, but out of conscience. If anyone wants to know how the world will fare in the hands of a “liberating” U.S. military, they need look no further than Latin America.

I suggest that we’ve become a sovietfascist state. not communist. Fascist in the Mussolini tradition where the government collect revenues on behalf of the corportations. This is corporate welfare. The obvious example is the collection of surplus Social Security funds which are given to the corporations and which closely approximate the bUSH tax cuts which benefit the wealthy. bUSH even admitted this saying that he was taking the Social Security funds and arrogantly saying “i’m not going to pay it back”. The Sovietization is the control of the MSM’s, which only serve to carry the administration viewpoint. Also, the monitoring of personal data and other illegal activities. The government admits to these illegal activities, finally, while passing laws to make them legal retoractivly.Meanwhile training future Timothy McVeighs. The country acquiessences to this atrocities without complaint. It’s classic Goerring.

Re:Comment #27516 by peggy on 10/07

Peggy, that was a well thought out comment. You match my views exactly.

But, if life is so cheap, why is the cost of living so high? Figure the cost of living to include the high price of responsibility for freedom in this world of capitalism, communism, fascism, Zionism, Islamism, Christian Nation, totalitarianism, and me-first-ism. If we promote our freedom to the extent that we advocate denial of freedom, the cost of living goes so high and the personal value so low that war is inevitable. The balance must be struck between freedom and comfort.

Suppression of my freedom of expression is far more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden’s freedom of expression. The danger from galloping fascism of George Bush and Company, Inc., is far more dangerous to America and the world than the loss of a dozen World Trade Centers.

Thanks for you comments.

Mr. Goff, I’m sure you’re aware of your medical benefits available at the VA.  I know from personal experience they have wonderful mental health facilities.

Hondo and Big Al exhibit what rightist Kool-aide drinkers (including their cult leader the President) do: make up straw men who represent the worst demons in their head.

“Oh, liberals want to let Islamofascists run the country.” No, son, that’s what you IMAGINE liberals would do. Same with Bushie saying “There were 177 Democrats who voted against allowing the CIA to listen to terrorists’ phone calls.”  It’s easy to get all worked up about your imaginary enemies. Easier to knock down their non-existent positions than actually deal with what liberals are saying.

And Hondo, when you say “Americans are repulsed by liberals” you should realise you’re projecting. You project your own dislike for what an imaginary liberal is and assume that everyone in America thinks like you do. Word up, mate—you’re in the minority. More than half of everyone in America believes the Iraq war was a mistake. More than half believe we’re less safe from terror now. More than half realise global warming is a real threat. You’re living in a fantasy world, Hondo. Perhaps one day you’ll wake up. On the other hand, 900 people at Jonestown never did.

I worry that hundreds of millions of Americans won’t wake up to the fascist threat until it’s too late. They’re the people who say “None of my rights have been taken away.” Actually, they have. Your house can be searched without notice, your e-mails can be read without a warrant, you can be placed on a No-Fly list without knowing why…

If you’re a right-winger and you’re reading this, are you worried that your Internet activity might be flagged? Oh, one viewing of a left-wing site like Truthdig won’t get your door kicked in at midnight. But suppose you go to a lot of liberal websites to make spurious arguments against us treasonous lefties? And suppose you work with someone who gave money to a suspect group, or there are other coincidences that add up in the database the government is building? You too could be denied boarding when you fly off, or be dragged into a special room for interrogation.

Are you just a bit afraid now, rightie? Better stay away from here. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of the fascists. Which, of course, don’t exist. Just keep telling yourself that…

Thank you Robert Scheer for bringing the learned Stan Goff to Truthdig!

Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros.

Looks like we have another Hondo with Big Al! Say something with substance will you? The reason why so called “liberals” whine so much is because there are ignorant people (like you appear to be-sorry I just calls it as I sees it!)running this country. Its as though you hate your fellow Americans who disagree with the Administration more than the terrorists. Do you follow the news(outside Fox)? Do you not see all the military generals speaking with desenting opinions? I am glad you have all of your rights though. Its really nice to see someone who trusts their government so completely. Either you are white and rich or ignorance is just bliss for you!!All that matters though is that you have your rights-am I right? As long as its the way you want this country to be? Does the constitution mean anything to you or is it just a “piece of paper” as George Bush calls it. I suggest you educate yourself.

once again,the libs are whining but not putting things in perspective.what rights have we lost since Bush and the “neocons"have gained office.?i still have all mine!maybe we should do as the libs say and just leave those poor islamofascists alone so they can run the US!i wonder what rights well have then?libs are so stupid they make me sick!

“Most Americans are repulsed by liberalism.”

Thank you Hondo for expressing the opinion of most Americans. I’m curious, would you please explain what it is about “liberalism,” that personally repulses you?

Please omit any reference to “tax and spend” liberals, because borrow and spend conservatives have made that punch line laughable.

Stan, this is the most convincingly terrifying thing I’ve read by you or anyone else that I can remember.  I don’t want to believe what you say, but I have to, because I have seen with my own eyes, even though I have never been near combat, nor near the center nor near the damaged periphery of this system, what racism is and what it does and why it continues. 

Slaves were imported from Africa to the Americas largely because Africans were physically different enough from whites to be easily identified, on sight, as not white, and therefore as slaves or runaway slaves.  The longstanding institution of slavery attained a new level of power with this innovation, if it was that.  Likewise, the longstanding institution of warfare has attained a new level of power through the mobilization of racism, enabling any American soldier in Iraq or Vietnam to physically identify, on sight, every member of the to-be-killed category.  From what you (Stan) and many others say, I have no reason to doubt that American soldiers are not only allowed, but trained, to hate every “rag-head” or “gook”.  Maybe the white boys in the military already hated blacks, or maybe they didn’t, but it is too easy to toss African-Americans into the hated, to-be-killed category that “rag-heads” and “gooks” are tossed into.  And white supremacists in the military seem perfectly happy to let this happen.

Racism, like aerial-bombing, is a blunt instrument.  If your sole aim is to kill or enslave (preferably kill) all the people of a certain visibly identifiable category, it works fine, as long as those people are all more or less in one geographical place.  When those people are scattered all over the world, it is harder, because then you have to pick them out one-by-one, and kill or imprison them one-by-on in the regions you control.  This is the strategy being employed by the US Government now in its “war against terror” and its “homeland defense” and its as yet unnamed war-against-nonwhite-nonAnglo-immigrants, and its as yet unnamed war against African-Americans.

Why do they do it?  Because it is easy, very easy to get stupid or disenfranchised whites to go along, and risk their own lives for the sake of killing non-whites.  It is not only, in Westmoreland’s words, because for “Orientals” human life is “cheap.”  ALL human life is cheap.  In the capitalist world, human lives are easily dispensable, because they are an abundant resource.  As abundant as breathable air, more abundant than drinkable water.

The problem is that no human being wants his or her own life to be cheap, and most human beings have others that they value almost as much as they value themselves, if not as much or even more.  So human beings who are treated as cheap create inconvenient resistance.  If they didn’t resist, there would be neither war nor terrorism, and life would be peachy for those who feel entitled to reign supreme … unless they run up against others who think THEY are entitled to reign supreme.

I am by no means the first to say any of these things.

Racism is a simple and easy means of domination.  For that reason I think it will be around for a long time, like sharks.  It also serves capitalist agendas well, because of its cheapening of human life, indeed of all life.  Finally, it serves the agendas of rich, lazy, short-sighted armchair warriors, like Bush and Cheney and crew.

But in the middle to long term, it doesn’t work as a governing strategy, nor as a warmaking strategy, and emanating just from that fact we may find one ray of hope. It works great for a while, and then it collapses. The war in Iraq is not working.  The war in Vietnam did not work. The Third Reich did not work. Stalinism did not work. Large economic and geographical sections of the United States have become dysfunctional and unsustainable, to put it mildly, and the dysfunctionality and unsustainability of the American Way has greatly accelerated over the past six years.  It will not continue because it cannot.  It will collapse under its own weight.  This is my solid prediction, for what I, who am not exactly a principal actor on any scene, and my views are worth.  But just wait and see.  The best we can do is make the collapse as gentle as we can, so that fewer lives are destroyed in the process, and people will have the means to get along and rebuild their local communities meanwhile and after.

Hondo why do you say that most Americans are repulsed by liberalism? Specifically what is it that repulses you(without the typical name calling)? It seems nowadays that even if you are slightly left of center you are considered a liberal. I am fiscally conservative and for small government(not Bush administration beliefs), yet I am for protecting the constitution and for individual freedoms as well as the press. Would you consider me a liberal? I voted Republican my whole life until Bush ran because I could see the writing on the wall with the christian right etc. So please, enlighten me!

I’m now no longer Gary but Gary296 when I comment! I should’ve known better than be so simplistic!

TOC

I am an American who lives outside the U.S. From a totally apolitical point of view, the most noticeable characteristic about Americans of all political persuasions is their fear. Whatever Americans may think, the fear appears extremely irrational to anyone who is not caught up in it.

I rarely watch TV, but when I do, I am shocked by how the news is presented in the states. Right wing or left, it is always couched in “fear the other guy” tones.

It seems that fear sells even better than sex these days.  Listen to the tones of your news readers. Fear mongers, one and all.

What is all this fear about. You are the richest most powerful nation on earth. You enjoy freedoms that most have never even dreamed about and yet, the face you show the world is people who live in fear of other people and of one another.

We have politicians who say nothing other than what we should fear.

What ever happened to “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”

Look at yourselves!

Hondo’s probably right: The Republicans probably will prevail in 2006.  After all, in 2004, in district after district the exit polls, which are NEVER wrong showed Democrats leading and then the Republicans came back.  Dems were leading by 5 to 11 points in the last polls before the elections and lost.

Of course, DieBolt was counting the votes—and we’ve seen that the CEO himself distributed “patches” just before elections, proving Stalin was right: It’s not votes that counts, it’s who counts the votes (one for you, two for me, one for you, two for me).

Plus, if the GOP “wins” the 2006 elections, I GUARANTEE they will win in 2008—because all dissent will be outlawed and the Democratic Party will be outlawed.  After all, all “President” Bush has to do is declare that all Democratic elected officials are “enemy combatants” and arrest them.  He’s already going around saying they are in favor of taking no action against terrorism (a lie), that they want to cut and run (a lie) and that they are undermining our efforts (a lie).  It’s the CLASSIC set-up for a fascist seizure of power.

Then we will be the fascist empire that Hondo gets wet dreams about, the world will hate us, and World War III will erupt out of this conflagration he started in Iraq, and millions upon millions of people will die, in a slaughter to make WWII and the Great Plague look like a cakewalk.

In fact, Bush is SO careless he may well use nuc-u-lar weapons and poison the Earth forever—because he doesn’t care about stuff like that—just so long as nobody thinks he’s a wuss.

Of course, this is Hondo’s idea of “paradise”.  I won’t care.  Mad King George and his band of Merrie Fascists will have arrested me (along with millions of others—Halliburton is building the camps already) and somehow, I’ll be killed “trying to escape”.

Good night, America. We’ve had a WONDERFUL 230 year run.  I’ll always treasure and love you even as MKG and the MFs are murdering you in a The Death of 1000 Cuts.

But maybe, maybe, MAYBE the Democrats will take one or two Houses on November 7 and can let the air and light in on the ROT that has taken over our government.

All they need is a BIG ad that says “Had ENOUGH already?  Vote Democratic!”

Bukko’s comment made me giggle, as do all of Bukko’s comments. He reveals a basic principle of liberalism in his comment. “When liberals lose, it’s because conservatives cheated.” That’s hilarious! It never occurs to the poor, deluded liberal that most Americans are repulsed by liberalism. Bukko, there’s a reason why only two Democrat presidential candidates in the last 50 years have won more than 50% of the popular vote, and it ain’t because Republicans cheated. Well, don’t make any plans to move back. The GOP will prevail in 2006, and again in 2008, so get comfortable Down Under!

This is in response to “We’re not close to facism”-he questions ascendance. Can’t you see that certain groups in the U.S. have become very powerful for example the Republican Party and the christian right. As far as vigilantism, I think he was refering to the future and the fact that a lot of Timothy Mcvey types are elisting. White supremacy is on the rise especially among teenagers and their is a certain genre of white supremist music that is appealing to teens. A lot of this music is against the law in Germany or Europe so they come to the U.S. where they have freedom of speech. As far as economic destabilization-do you think that the deficits we have now will not affect our economy? He is saying that our country is ripe for this and he is right!!

Is there any evidence that this article’s thesis is correct?  Are people who serve in the military more racist, less tolerant, and so forth than those who have not (but who come from similar working class backgrounds)?

As a leftist who hates promiscuous and poor historical analogies (particularly ones to Nazi Germany) I wrote a brief email last night in response to the Stan Goff article…

How come it wasn’t posted???

As i submitted my post, I was notified that a Moderator would review it to check for spam or off-post comments…

So what happened????

I recently finished a book that quoted an american businessman named Laurence W. Britt, who is also a novelist-historian and a social science sleuth.  In 2002 he examined principles of fascism and noted 14 identifying characteristics of fascism:

1.  Powerful and continuing nationalism
2.  Disdain for the recognition of human rights
3.  Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
4.  Supremacy of the military
5.  Rampant sexism
6.  Controlled mass media
7.  Obsession with national security
8.  Religion and government are intertwined
9.  Corporate power is protected
10. Labor power is suppressed
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

Interesting to say the least.  One can see many of the above currently at work in our country today.  Many also attributable to the religious right at work.

The editors note that begins this article states Stan Goff warns that “white supremacy, militarization of culture, vigilantism, masculine fear of female power, xenophobia and economic destabilization—are ascendant in America today.”

In ascendance????

I looked up the dictionary defintion for ascendance: “a position of dominance or controlling influence: possession of power, superiority, or preeminence.”

Vigiliantism is a dominant featue of American Society????

Did I miss something?

Have there been thousands of leftists (unions, communists) street fighting with brown shirts???

White Supremacy???

Has the klan been riding through towns again?

Economic Destablization???

Where is this guy living???

In Germany during the 20’s, the inflation rate was so high it reached 3.25 × 106 percent per month (prices doubled every 49 hours).

I don’t think we’ve approached that level yet…

there are lot’s of things to be worried about, to get organized and active about but exaggeration and bad historical analogies are of little help….

In Comment #26986 Colonel writes quite correctly:

“Goff wanders all over the lot, making some good points and some not so good. What he totally misses is that the “military facism” he deplores is a copy of the Israeli Defense Force mentalty. Further, the American military ‘facists’ who Goff denounces are being used in Iraq and other regions of the Middle East primarily in the service of Israel, not U.S., interests.”

Absolutely fantastic article, I have many of the same thoughts but without such an organized, articulate expression. I actually took my whole lunch break to read the whole thing.  Unfortunately it isn’t an issue that can be wrapped up in a 30 second news story so we won’t see it on the evening news, (if you still watch the evening news.) Good Luck everyone.

I stayed in New Orleans throughout Katrina and Rita and the most frightening aspect was the speed with which a police state was established.  “Security” types were clearly enjoying the power that fell into their hands, and used it to bully, intimidate, loot and even kill.  They had the time of their lives.
It took some time for things to return to “normal”, and for a while, with no murders and little mayhem in October and November, the NOPD spent much time getting drunk in the parking lot at the cruise ship docks.

As a Navy veteran, I am alarmed at the right wing shift in the armed forces.  When I was in the service, most peoples’s goal was to learn a skill, get out, join a union, vote Democratic, and have a family.
So few Americans, much less the media, have any contact with the military now they have no idea what it is all about.  It looks as though we are developing a military class now, like they have in many Latin American countries.  Like them, it is closely allied with the religious establishment (in this case the Evangelicals instead of the Roman Catholic Church), as well as the wealthy right wing of the country.  Given the current feelings of hatred for their fellow countrymen, the new torture law, secret evidence, secret prisons, I fear for the future of this county.

Thanks Stan

sincerely

...mother

Yours Truly, I’ve already sent my absentee ballot in to San Francisco. (Postage cost me $3.70 Australian!) I’m paranoid so I don’t have much faith in the U.S. electronic voting machines, though. If the elections are miraculously fair and liberals take power, we might move back. Course, that will mean we sold a very nice California house with an ocean view and uprooted our entire lives for nothing…

I note that two other foundations of true fascism - backing by religion & corporate control of government - both certainly apparent with the current administration (and our country’s state of affairs), should be duly contemplated as further evidence of our swift advance toward fascism.

re: Comment #26917 by Bukko

Looking ahead a few years to when America loses the Iraq war and the troops finally come home,  Bukko sees America “slipping into a long, dark night.”  Which, incidentally, is what happened in Germany when its troops returned home after WW I.

How can we prevent America from slipping into that long, dark night?  By winning the November election, that’s how.  It’s the first step towards changing the world.  .

wow. good analysis. nothing scares me so much as the thought of these white supremacists armed and organized and turned against…us. Aryan Nation graffiti in Baghdad is one thing. Scrawled on the walls of my ‘safe’ little town in the woods of New England is quite another. But here it comes. In my not-very-big town, the police budget has grown exponentially, in many cases with funding from Homeland Security, and the police are palpably a bigger presence, and we are way way over-policed. But there they are, and nothing makes me feel more unsafe than a bunch of bored cops. It’s different than the issue of supremacists in the military, but not that different. Not different enough.
Strangely enough, the one thing in the article that gave me a tiny fragment of hope is the notion of ‘unplanned outcomes,’ that the ruling class sets things in motion but are themselves overtaken by events in a world too complicated to control. To me, it means that the outcome is still in play.
So what to do? I have to ask this question. To not ask the question is to risk hopelessness, which may be realistic but nevertheless leads to paralysis and inaction. Fear is necessary to fascism.
My own opinion is that what we do now is listen, we listen to the people we disagree with, to the people we’re afraid of, even to the people we hate, not to our own detriment of course, but if you can, listen with great humility and attention.
Believe it or not, I’m not really a pollyanna. I am a teacher, though, and experience has taught me that most education is coercion, that the act of teaching is a gradual disempowerment of the ‘taught’ and turns people into ‘good Germans.’
the only way to really teach anyone anything is to have a relationship with them, and then a natural human economy, the exchange of ideas between equals, can take place.
So that is what I propose as a solution, that instead of shrinking away in horror from the neo-Nazis and such, to engage with them, not if they’re going to bash your head in, of course, and not like some weird New Age evangelist, but if their thinking is based on pain and fear, those emotions are like epoxy, and the only thing powerful and simple enough is listening.

It’s refreshing to hear this from a man, and a military man. One of the most frustrating things about studying human history, for me, is the way so much energy over the past millenia has been wasted in controlling how women behave, and how we raise our daughters to be, when the deciding factor in the social cohesion of each generation is how that generation raises their sons, how male peers expect and pressure each other to behave, what role-models fathers present to their sons. And then possibly how much abuse or disrespect women will accept from their lovers and their sons without at least trying to buck the system. Female power is possibly a necessary thing to maintain peace in a balanced society. Our mothers let us down when they sacrifice so much and treat us so damn well, because, generation after generation, we always seem to miss the point of female kindness. Thanks, Mr Goff, i’ll read your book.

What an article! Blame the liberals for the failure in Iraq, I could believe it. Since I’ve agreed I’m a racist to a certain degree, I must be a republican! NOT! Iraq is the new wild west where it’s a free for all. Some have already left the U.S. because of what is coming since I can’t and won’t, now what? Rebuild America? How? Free elections, I don’t think so! It’s truly the new world order. Look at the Tri-Lateral Commission, their goal is one world government. They are 300+ of the world’s elite with this common goal. White racism is responding to the situation of our cities, government, and loss of power. There is a chance of conflict that I never thought I’d see, yet, it might. As always, it’s by design! If you can find it check out a book written in 1976, published by FreePress titled “Rockefeller Secret Files”! My hometown college library had one copy not to be checked out and the town library zero yet there was over one million! It says surrender by consent or conquest.

So Stan Goff, you actually read these comments? Those of us who compulsively opine don’t often get to see that our feedback is read back. Good onya for writing it, mate!

I’ve met a few Special Forces men during my years. (Real ones who were quiet about it, not the fakers who brag.) I was impressed by these guys because they were so damned smart. Multi-lingual, knew other cultures, well-versed in the U.S. Constitution… You don’t get to that level without brains. It’s a cruel world out there, and you need hard men to handle it. They don’t worry me as much as the non-coms and enlisted men. My dad was career Army, and I grew up on military bases. Officers were decent (if a bit bloody-minded) but it’s easy to see the men further down in the ranks being the threat. How many human bombs like McVeigh are ticking at this moment?

For those of you who are leaving the country, I can only think of you as cowards. So, you love your country, but when the going gets a little tough, you up and leave? How nobel of you. A great example you’re setting for your children.

Instead of putting your tail between your legs, how about standing up for what you believe in, and band together to throw these turds in office out the window? They are NOT gods, they’re fallable people, that’s right, PEOPLE with stupid ideas in their heads. They can be ousted.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE, or be a frightened yellow-belly coward. I guess we always show our true colors, dont we?

Socrates, what are you directing the editor to correct?  US Army Special Forces are part of the US Special Operations Command, just as the Navy Seals and several other groups are.

A good and scary article. I’m sure Mr. Goff has seen the films and read the books and articles covering the growing sense that 9/11 was a part of the violent face of a right wing Pentagon coup to secure the dominion of a white supremacist world view. McVeigh and Waco were nascent ripples foreshadowing a calamitous wave of righteous indignation by the Power Elite, that America could possibly have to take second seat in a free marketplace, peopled by irrational religionists bent on talking gibberish and mouthing mystical spittle and mental sandstorms over their sovereign oil fields. We face a future perhaps even more extreme than science fiction has dared to imagine. A world where oil is no longer a tradable commodity; America is the Empire Oil built and is bent on controlling every last drop of it. If fostering ignorance and outright lying are useful strategies in this winner take all conflict then those who help will be given Medals of Freedom. Those who object will find no habeas corpus or even a thousand points of light in little bags floating down the River Styx to mark their passing. War is peace and ignoble causes are holy grails. The barbaric hordes are among us already. They look at us cross eyed from Presidential podiums. Bush #43-44 tells us the truth: all “-isms and “-ists” that obstruct the way will be crushed by super tech hobnailed thugs working hard and doing swell, whether troops, or para-military contractors, or bespectacled under-employeds sitting in ranks of air conditioned cubicles reading and editing dispatches from the colored populated frontlines. Doomed as doomed can be. Jesus weeps. Who will help a poor widow’s son?

Further clarification on Special Operations v. Special Forces, because the last clarificaton by Socraties was not exactly correct.

Special Operations encompasses a very wide variety of activities that fall outside the rubric of “conventional” operations, and this is evolving (for the worse, with Rumsfeld contributing signficantly to the degradation of all forces, especially the “special” ones).

Special Operations is covered geenrally under the Special Operations Command (SOCOM), a joint (multi-services) command, with subdivisions specific to each branch (Army, Navy, Air Force) under SOCOM.  Special Forces is an Army organization, and it is NOT limited to “advising,” but has responsiblity for a variety of missions with the emphasis on language capability (unique to SF)... which include direct action, but also something called “foreign internal defense,” “unconventional warfare,” and “special” (strategic) reconnaissance.  I served in two of these “Groups,” 3rd and 7th, and did everything from pull teeth to run battalion consolidated sniper training to play military dictator in a small section of Haiti.  (And I’m sorry, Socrates, but having worked both sides of this, I can say that “advising” is by far the more nuanced misson, and the one that calls on more skills that shooting people and blowing things up, no matter how unconventional the means of delivery.)  The Army’s Special Ops—under the US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC)—also includes Psyops and Civil Affairs, 75th Ranger Regiment (a shock infantry outfit, where I served thrice), 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), and Special Forces Operatonal Detachment - Delta (SFOD-D, or Delta Force… my unit in 1983-4-5-&6)... which operates with other serivces through the Joints Special Operations Command (JSOC), which includes one Seal Team (that shares a counter-terrorist mission with Delta) and some other components.

They are all as subject to bureaucratic bullshit as any other service, albeit in their own “special” bureaucracy, and they are (among trigger pullers) the whitest units in the military.  Their mystique is far more impressive than their actual operations; and it isimportant for readers to understand that these units are peopled by… well, people… who put their pants on one leg at a time just like everyone else.  Among them are theocratic lunatics like Bishop Boykin, future left-wingers like your truly, serial rapists like Marshall Brown, drunks, miltary legacy admits like David Grange, and lots of folks with nothing to distinguish them aside from a decent ASVAB score and the ability to put up with physical punishment.

Stan Goff said more elegantly and eloquently what I have been trying to say in many, many posts: Fascism is upon us.

That first Tuesday in November may well be our one chance to prevent it—and the conflagration that will engulf the world if they win.

But it’s terrifying that SO many military men are all in favor of this radical racist “trash that scrap of paper (the Consitution)” view that a military coup, which has NEVER happened in the US, no longer can be considered impossible.

How many Augusto Pinochets are in position to establish a junta?  How many dream of herding all the “undesireables” into Yankee Stadium, RFK Stadium, Dallas Cowboys Stadium and Candlestick, then machine-gunning them all? Like Pinochet did at the University stadium in Santiago? All the Democratic Congressmen, Senators, Governors, Mayors, “Uppity” Black leaders, Hispanics (they’re all prolly illegals anyway),and one else designated a “liberal” will be first.

I’ll bet they get all in a sweat thinking how “great” it will be to become genocidal mass murderers, who, if they are EVER brought to justice, will face The Hague as criminals against Humanity.

Good read…. a 20 year Vet myself 1976-96, I became disillusioned after see the mess of Desert Storm. It is sad now, as a Pscyhology graduate student, to see this change in the cultural attitude of America.
Question for you much smarter folks out there; is the forecasted economic collapse in 2008, due to the Basal II, a legitimate spark for the coming confligration? Or is Basal II a cover for something deeper? (See Arlington Institute report)

I continue to be surprised by the Administration’s frequent use of the term “fascist” as a pejorative describing our enemies in the Middle East because it is disturbingly reminiscent of activities closer to home. 
  According to “The Anatomy of Fascism” by R. O. Paxton (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2004, pp 219-220), ideas underlying fascist actions include (1) a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions, (2) the primacy of the group to which one has duties and the subordination of the individual to it, (3) the belief that one’s group is a victim which justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies, (4) dread of the group’s decline under the corrosive effects of individual liberalism, (5) need for authority by male chiefs, (6) superiority of the leader’s instincts over reason, (7) the beauty of violence devoted to the group’s success, and (8) the right of the group to dominate others without restraint from any kind of human or devine law. 
  Does that sound familiar or what?  Perhaps the Administration’s leaders might consider using some other term than “fascism” to defend their policies, a term which would not turn attention to their own activities.

Note to the Editor: there is a difference between “Special Forces” and “Special Operations.” The former are mostly advisors who aid foreign military forces to overcome a foe the US gov’t doesn’t like (e.g., helping the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan overcome the Taliban). The latter include very highly skilled soldiers (the cream of the crop, e.g., Navy Seals) who conduct black-ops and other small focused missions, often involving slipping in and out of an area to “neutralize” a bite-size target undetected.

As felow Vetnam Combat veteran and former SFC thank you.  Would you mind telling me what Country you moved to and how is it.  I think it is time to leave myself with my family.

Second is Sowing the Seeds of Fascism In America a book if it is I would like to buy a copy.

Thank You,

Chris

Anyone who has been the least bit observant can see for themselves that this isn’t just an “American” problem. It is an ugly problem in the whole of the “white” western society in general. 

I genuinely believe we are moving towards a fascist government, not only in the United States, but in all countries that are dominately white.

How sad for the world and most likely the end of civilization as we know it - fascism has been coming for a long time - it just needed the right people in the right places to institute it and to bring down the upon our collective heads Orwell’s “1984”

Goff wanders all over the lot, making some good points and some not so good. What he totally misses is that the “military facism” he deplores is a copy of the Israeli Defense Force mentalty. Further, the American military “facists” who Goff denounces are being used in Iraq and other regions of the Middle East primarily in the service of Israel, not U.S., interests.

So, Mr. Dig guy…are you FOR, or AGAINST???
You talk of being a veteran, so you must be of an age to have seen all the twisting of our laws and constitution, the degrading of uor land, our cities/towns/neighborhoods/SCHOOLS….our MORAL CHARACTER…all at the hands of the campaigns of those people out to DESTROY us, OUR CULTURE, AND our fine Nation…along with ALL EUROPE AND THE WORLD…You write as an authority on all this knowledge…WHAT SAY YOU??? Prey, or be preyed UPON???
  In The Awakening of White America…
                Wolf B’Shannon

Bukko,
  Got any room on your couch?

While Mr. Goff does mentor some thoughts that are stimulating, I must disagree on protecting our borders as being neo-fascist. We are living in a time when a radioactive bomb will fit into a suitcase and has capabilities to kill tens of thousands of people. This is not fantasy this is realistic. Is Amerika a fascist state…it seems those seeds are germinating quite well. Corporate take-over is a reality, ” What is good for the Corporations, is good for Amerika”, that is the theme in every city, county, state and federal governments through-out our land. Globalization is the new slang for One World Government that was warned about decades ago. While those that scoffed at the time are so very still now. The middle class is soon to be at an all time low and poverty is the largest growing segment of our society..with no end in sight. While we grow poorer corporation grow bigger and bigger, with the blessings of all our governments. But while my fellow man refuses to read and think why should it get beetter?

A quite well-reasoned, and well-written explication of the rise of fascism, whose results we saw last week in the Congressional acceptance of the end of habeas corpus, the handing over of all power to the executive, and, to our eternal national shame, the legalization of torture and rejection of the Geneva Conventions.  Unlike the earlier commenter, I don’t have the option of moving to another country, so now, though I witnessed 9/11 personally in New York City, I finally feel the fear that our fearful leaders have been demanding of us for five years now.

Actually, I am a 24-year veteran of the Army, and retired holding the MOS of 18Z, Special Forces.  Career outline and bio available at wiki.

But thanks agian, Truthdig.

Much like Charles Darwin’s immutable truths regarding of the origins and evolution of life, Karl Marx guided us through the reasons capitalism was born, why it would thrive and dominate for a time, and how its inherent contradictions condemn it to be replaced by a superior economic system called socialism. Marx’s brilliant science-based vision can no longer be challenged on the facts. It has and is going to continue to unfold just as he forecast. Capitalism is doomed.

So now as capitalism enters its final stages, gasping desperately for life-giving profit, politically a nearly seamless transition to fascism is taking place in the US, just as Mr. Goff states. The trappings of bourgeois democracy are a brake on profits and so they are being shredded. The Constitution and its Bill of Rights are being rendered meaningless by presidential signing statements and the theory of the unitary executive, extraordinary rendition, government surveillance programs and the like. Programs based on democratic principles like the public schools, Social Security, Medicare, affirmative action and welfare are being starved to death. The mass media and electoral machinery and both major political parties are now fully under the control of those in power. Bloodless coups in 2000 and 2004 installed George W. Bush in the White House and no future election will remove the candidate of the ruling class from power.

It would take a team of psychoanalysts to catalogue the many and varied mental pathologies of George W. Bush and his henchmen in the U.S. government. The point to keep in mind is that in this time and in this place the capitalist system needed people in power capable of carrying out insane and grotesquely inhumane policies, up to and including the coming nuclear strike on Iran.

‘Bukko in Australia’ paints a scary picture for the future of America. My hope is that he/she is wrong. Never the less, I’m staying right where I am, outside of the USA.

Maybe, if I live long enough, I’ll return, with others, to help rebuild America. Hopefully to help bring back the country I was born in to what it was meant to be.