From The Ramparts

The Continuing Nazification of AmeriKKKa

The Continuing Nazification of AmeriKKKa


“Americans need to understand that many interests are using the "war on terror" to achieve their agendas. The Federalist Society is using the "war on terror" to achieve its agenda of concentrating power in the executive and packing the Supreme Court to this effect. The neocons are using the war to achieve their agenda of Israeli hegemony in the Middle East. Police agencies are using the war to remove constraints on their powers and to make themselves less accountable. Republicans are using the war to achieve one-party rule--theirs. The Bush administration is using the war to avoid accountability and evade constraints on executive powers. Arms industries, or what President Eisenhower called the "military-industrial complex," are using the war to fatten profits. Terrorism experts are using the war to gain visibility. Security firms are using it to gain customers. Readers can add to this list at will. The lack of debate gives carte blanche to these agendas. One certainty prevails. Bush is committing America to a path of violence and coercion, and he is getting away with it.” Paul Craig Roberts www.informationclearinghouse.com

I was at the gym this morning in the sauna and one of the brothers who works out there every day asked the white guy sitting next to him, what he was reading? The man replied an editorial from what appeared to be the New York Times. He said it was about domestic spying and asserted that with all these terrorists attacking embassies around the world the government should be tapping our phones. I normally don’t get into conversations like that but I suggested to the white dude that he do some reading research on the Church Committee’s 1976 report (The Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations With Regard to Intelligence Activities) that revealed the abuses of COINTElPRO and Operation Chaos conducted by the FBI and CIA and asked himself if this country wanted to go down that road again? The white guy looked at me with that deer in the headlight’s look and asked if I was talking about what the FBI did to Martin Luther King Jr? Naturally since I was black that was all he could fathom me referring to the US police state, the FBI tapping a man like King’s phones. I added the government also spied upon and attacked: organized labor, the anti-war movement as well as Civil Rights leaders. A white woman sitting near me in a lotus position sort of woke up and chimed in the conversation. “Some people think the US government was in on 9-11.” She said. I responded the only way 9-11 could have possibly happened was if the US government was in on it. “Where was NORAD, the FAA, the military or the FBI ?” I asked. The tension in the room shot way up. There was some banter about the wiretaps and the FISA Court, whereupon I shared those FISA laws were passed as a result of the abuses during the Vietnam War uncovered and revealed by the Church Committee report. I also mentioned that the CIA retaliated against Senator Church by giving money and aid to defeat him in his bid for re-election. The woman, a sort of old school hippy, mentioned Hurricane Katrina as an example of government ineptitude. I replied that that too, was deliberate and if people don’t wake up soon, AmeriKKKa was going to be like Nazi Germany. With that, all the whites got up and left. I remained in the sauna for a few more minutes and then continued my work out in the swimming pool and the whirlpool. Later I was in the men’s shower area and one of the white men who was in the sauna during the “discussion” came over to me and sheepishly admitted the intrusions into the privacy of citizens lives’ did indeed pose a threat. He was especially concerned about the right wing drift of the US Supreme Court. I agreed with him and suggested Kelo vs. New London as an example of how a fascist Supreme Court could rule that taking people’s property and giving it to for-profit developers was okay. Then he too got that deer in the headlight’s look .
As I showered and got cleaned up, I thought to myself, those two encounters were classic examples of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when facts and stimuli go against a person’s especially a white person’s, firmly entrenched beliefs most will shut down mentally or become angry. I got dressed and left but I couldn’t help thinking about several Internet posts I’d read recently about the dummying down of AmeriKKKa. One even said most AmeriKKKans were simply dumber than George W Bu$h. “Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll and a New York Times/CBS News poll, indicate why Bush is getting away with impeachable offenses. Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring, processing and understanding information. Much of the problem is the media itself, which serves as a disinformation agency for the Bush administration. Fox 'News' and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with propagandistic outlets setting the standard for truth and patriotism, all of the media is affected to some degree. Despite the media's failure, about half the population has managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not made them safer and that the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties is not a necessary component of the war on terror. The problem, thus, lies with the absence of due diligence on the part of the other half of the population.” www.CounterPunch.com 01-29-06 H. L. Mencken a famous white AmeriKKKan journalist and writer once said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Based on my experiences today at the gym, I’d say he was correct.

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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 2:51 PM