A Sad Reminder

fascist048To me, the saddest aspect of 2016 has been the reemergence of fascism in this nation. My father, uncles and hundreds of thousands of their generation put their lives on the line to rid the world of these shit eating cockroaches. It is up to those of us who inherited that legacy to never, ever allow it to rise again. (Note: This cartoon was done during the civil war in Bosnia. How naive we were to believe it would never take hold on these shores.)

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52 Responses to A Sad Reminder

  1. Gail Kraus says:

    R.L., have you seen the work of Art Young?

    • rlcrabb says:

      Yes I have. I may have posted one of his either here or on Facebook a while back. My memory fails me. Great art, but I’m not much into his alt-left politics.

  2. Chris Peterson says:

    In my research on the history of fascism, I found that it’s ancient symbol, the fasces, is everywhere in our government; from the steps of the Supreme Court, to the Seal of the Senate, the House, the Lincoln memorial, mercury dime, etc., etc., etc.. So, the conversion shouldn’t cost much, (monetarily speaking).
    On the plus side; I found a new way of spelling mine shaft:
    meinschaft, German for community, from volksgemeinschaft, the term Nazis rallied to in building their national consensus.
    Which brings me full circle, since I believe we should take today’s totally un-American fascist movement, (which fits the classic definition of nationalistic anti-liberalism with overtones of racism to a tee), drop it down a mine shaft, and leave it to rot in it’s own bile.

  3. gjrebane says:

    I take it that all this apprehension and foreboding is in anticipation of the Trump administration.

    • rl crabb says:

      Unless you are living under a rock, George, there have been news reports documenting numerous outbreaks of violence against latinos, Muslims, gays, police and yes, even conservatives since November 9. There is film footage of neo-nazis giving the straight arm salute in celebration. The Ku Klux Klan is publicly active again after hiding in the shadows for years. And yes, most of it is due to the slurs uttered by The Donald during his campaign. Now he says he really didn’t mean it. It’s a bit late for that. He’s made bigotry fashionable again.

      • Greg Goodknight says:

        There have been news reports primarily because the Trump opposition is on an anti-Steve Bannon rampage. Bannon is Alt-Right, which is even less organized than Tea Party (and I think it generally includes Tea Party brands)… almost literally just an alternative to GOP branded Right Wing. An alternative for right wingers.

        A nutcase neo-Nazi, one Richard Spenser, has a group that recently held it’s national convention in Washington DC. Something like 200 people attended, an average of 4 attendees per state (let’s call them a few sandwiches short of a picnic), and as a result, prominent “white nationalists” have pounded them, pissed off the Sieg Heil salutes have made the “white nationalist” brand look bad.
        http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/22/white-nationalist-to-alt-right-leader-knock-it-off-with-the-nazi-stuff.html

        The white nationalist, from his own mouth, made it clear he was trying to use the new found prominence of Breitbart and Trump style Alt-Right to sneak white nationalism into the mainstream, while the Washington Post has been making it clear their intent is to smear Steve Bannon with the white nationism label as their ongoing jihad against Trump, despite having no words of Bannon’s promoting such things.

        In other words, Earl, the rise in news reports of neo-Nazi activity is just a continuation of the activist reporting we’ve been getting for over a year. Watching Morning Joe a few days ago, the Hollywood Reporter who did a big interview with Bannon was trying to get across to the hosts that Bannon was crazy like a fox and it was a trap to be pushing the “white nationalist” label onto him… Mika Btfsplk was having an especially hard time with understanding that, having already taken the bait.

        • Chris Peterson says:

          As usual, forest for the trees, Greg. In your effort to appear well informed, you dissect one bad apple and miss the obvious fact that the barrel is turning. You might as well be practicing the ancient art of myomancy. It would, no doubt, be an improvement over your current lack of social observation.

        • rl crabb says:

          It may be easy for you to discount the rash of ‘incidents’ to an overactive press, but you can’t deny all the bullshit Presidonald-elect spewed during his campaign, even going so far as to accuse rival Cruz’s pop of being in league with Lee Harvey Oswald. If you spent any time on Facebook, you’d see for yourself how many of these fuckwads have crawled out of the sewer to happily spew their hate.
          And yes, there has been a good deal of it coming from the left as well. Just another reason I don’t vote for these dinosaurs.

          • Greg Goodknight says:

            The press corps were hounding David Duke for autographs all during the primary season and on up to the election, but the press never seemed to report on the fact that no GOP insider ever even gave him the time of day. A press phenom.

            Assholes were gloating before the election and assholes were gloating after the election, they were just different assholes. About a month before the election at one of my favorite caffinated watering holes, a couple were counting their Electors before the election and laughing about the stupidity of Republicans individually and as a whole and yes, I called them on being bigots. After the election, they were quite subdued and quietly told their friend behind the counter they had to unfriend someone for gloating… as if they would be anything besides abysmal winners had Clinton won.

            It was particularly silly to see Milo whatsisname trashed as a white supremacist, to which he effectively countered that he was then the first white supremacist to ever regularly suck b**** d**k. What he was, and what Breitbart apparently always has been, is politically incorrect in a roid rage, happy to push delicate snowflakes towards a meltdown. How insensitive can one be?

  4. Judith Lowry says:

    And let’s not forget “kitty” grabbing!

  5. Steven Frisch says:

    The single most dangerous trend in the world today is the re-emergence of nationalist authoritarian governments in Europe threatening the western liberal (small l) democratic tradition and threatening to turn Europe back to a first half of the 20th Century pattern of armed conflict and bringing the new world into that conflict yet again.

    Russia, Austria, Sweden, Hungary, The Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, the rise of Le Pen’s National Front in France, the emergence of the Alternative for Germany Party are all examples of a resurgent nationalism largely built on populist political messaging.

    Lest we forget, before the post WWII European liberal (small l) democratic consensus, Europe was the source of more revolution, war, genocide and death than any other corner of the world, accounting for more than 100 million dead in the 20th Century alone.

    To some extent this nationalistic trend in Europe and the west is a response to the rise of Islamic fundamentalist movements.

    Part of the Al-Qaeda and ISIS strategy, which they have been remarkably public about, has been to disrupt western democracy through a combination of terrorist attacks, embroiling western interests in middle eastern conflicts, and sectarian war in the middle east perpetuating a refugee crises, thus feeding the anti-Islamic sentiment that creates populist and nationalistic reaction. They win when the west reacts by waging war on Islam because that is their path to the apocalyptic conflict between east and west they seek.

    A return to authoritarianism is the road to hell…a hell we lived in the 20th Century…paved with the patriotism of rubes and stooges.

    • rl crabb says:

      Another factor was the failure of the so-called Arab Spring to produce stable, tolerant governance to the middle east.

      • Greg Goodknight says:

        Brexit was largely a repudiation of authoritarian, anti-democratic Left and Center-Left governance by EU fiat; similarly, Trump was a repudiation of Left and Center-Left governance by the Democratic Party’s leadership. Obama/Pelosi/Reid have only themselves to blame for the rise of the GOP to absolutely dominate the country, except for the press which remains 99 44/100% liberal Democrat.

        To repeat… the GOP has the presidency, the house, the senate, two thirds of the governorships and two thirds of state legislative seats and are assured a 5/4 majority in the Supremes and may have a 6/3 within four years. A catbird seat they’ve not had for nearly a century.

        In addition, by a quirk of timing, the vast majority of Senate seats up for election in 2018 are being warmed by Democratic bums and it’s almost assured that no matter how badly the GOP plays their hand over the next two years, they’ll probably strengthen their majority in the Senate.

        • Steven Frisch says:

          Yeah, it reminds me a lot of the 1932 & 1933 Weimar elections.

          • Chris Peterson says:

            Your observations are spot on, Steven, as evidenced by the first calls made to foreign organizations from the incoming administration were to those you mentioned above. This “alt-right” bullshit is an international movement stirred by the same fascist idiocy that brought about WW2. The fact that it has a new foothold here in the US, as it did during those times as well, only escapes the myopic views of the pseudo-intellectuals. (No need to mention names.)

          • Steven Frisch says:

            I did not mention Brexit as an example of authoritarianism.

          • Greg Goodknight says:

            Peterson, the name you left unmentioned was obviously Frisch.

            Frisch, you missed the point… it was the undemocratic authoritarian EU the Brexiters were voting against, and it was the antidemocratic (small d) imperious Obama presidency that the Trumpers were voting against.

            I recall a survey in some magazine (Time? The Economist? Der Spiegel?) a couple decades ago, asking managers in Europe to rank European management competence by nationality… I think the Germans were on top but I remember for a fact the Belgians were on the bottom. Colonial Belgians were also arguably the absolute worst in 19th century Africa.

            Having the EU governed undemocratically from Belgium was an avoidable disaster. The Brits were shocked the Brexit went their way, looks like Italy may be the next to go.

          • Steven Frisch says:

            “Peterson, the name you left unmentioned was obviously Frisch.”

            Greg, I did not address you, I never mentioned you by name, and I did not insult you.

            No need for you to engage in a conversation with me. I certainly have no interest in engaging in a conversations with you.

          • Greg Goodknight says:

            Frisch, your Godwin forfeit of 12:03 insults lots of people I know and respect.

            As far as I’m concerned, this election was won by Antonin Scalia and for those of you who think election by popular vote total, imagine what the GOP vote could have been
            1) without Trump demonized by 99% of the mainstream press, or
            2) without the mainstream press interfering with the GOP primary process, or
            3) without the mainstream press interfering with the DP primary process,
            all at the behest of the DNC.
            Thank you, WikiLeaks.

          • Steven Frisch says:

            I don’t recognize Goodwin’s Law.

            When you elect a crypto-fascist, pussy grabbing, anti-meixcan, anti-Islamic bigot and serial liar who creeps on his own daughter and has 4,000 law suits against him, who nominates a white supremacist apologist as his chief advisor, Goodwin’s Law is out the door.

            I’ll call a Nazi a Nazi whenever I damn well please.

          • Steven Frisch says:

            You have an alternative to a free press you would like to suggest?

            You have an alternative to freely accessible social media you would like to suggest?

          • Greg Goodknight says:

            Frisch, you’ve been reading too much fake news masquerading as free and objective journalism, with the brick and mortar mainstream unmasked by WikiLeaks as a virtual subsidiary of the Democratic National Committee.

            Edward R. Murrow has been set to spinning in his grave by the reduction of journalists to the role of lickspittle to the Democratic Party, and you cheapen the memory of the Holocaust by your cavalier overuse of Nazi.

          • Chris Peterson says:

            There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all. -Nietzche
            In that light, Greg, you are the most ineffectual hammer on this blog, in that you always insist on bringing oranges to an apple fight.
            President Clinton, Brexit, Wikileaks, Spenser, and your views on a biased media; it’s all based on opposition to whatever others have to say, rather than a thoughtful proclamation of what you, yourself, believe to be the answer.
            You are, in essence, the consummate Nowhere Man.

          • Steven Frisch says:

            You may not agree with me Mr. Goodknight, but I have a pretty good fake news radar, and a better satire radar, and you sir are the stuff satire is made of.

            Mr. Peterson has it entirely correct, for you everything is through a filter of personal bias and ego.

          • Greg Goodknight says:

            “it’s all based on opposition to whatever others have to say, rather than a thoughtful proclamation of what you, yourself, believe to be the answer.”

            Chris, it only seems that way because of where you are standing, on the left side of the left side. In a very real sense, you are the reason I left the Democratic Party back in 1980, registering Libertarian as they were (and are) the only Jeffersonian anti-Federalist party with ballot status in all States.

            Please, feel free to take the gloves off and really give the GOP the what-for in the coming years. Obviously, the collective-you were just not loud and ugly enough to counter the bad guys. Stop being bashful.

          • Chris Peterson says:

            You obviously are forgetting the fact that I was a Sanders supporter until he lost the primary, at which point, briefly, I switched to Libertarian, but only long enough to witness their convention footage and their candidate’s obvious lack of mental focus in his subsequent interviews. My opinion then became that anyone who seriously backed him had absolutely no grasp of what “Jeffersonian” politics, much less Jeffersonian-intellect, meant. (And, there are also human feces in all 50 states, though most of us see no viable candidate in their ranks.)
            You are the classic bitter old man who obviously resents being trapped in the most progressive nation in history, and with the minority’s election of Trump, whether you voted for him or not, he is the personification of your political identity, as argued here repeatedly. We’d all have a greater respect for you if you’d, at the least, acknowledge your inner fascism.

          • Greg Goodknight says:

            “…but I have a pretty good fake news radar”

            “When you elect a crypto-fascist, pussy grabbing, anti-meixcan [sic], anti-Islamic bigot and serial liar who creeps on his own daughter and has 4,000 law suits against him, who nominates a white supremacist apologist as his chief advisor”

            That’s chock full ‘o fake news, with the understanding that Trump hyperbole offended different sensibilities than Clinton hyperbole did.

            Good luck in 2018 and 2020.

          • Steven Frisch says:

            I could of course back up everything I said, in most cases with video of the Donald himself, but dealing with you is a distraction. Chris described your mindset aptly enough.

          • Greg Goodknight says:

            “I could of course back up everything I said”

            No, I doubt you could, if you stick with original and complete citations, in context.

            I can, of course, back up everything I wrote. If you can be civil, moving this to Rebane’s would make sense.

      • Steven Frisch says:

        No interes in moving this to Rebane’s and you are incapable of civility.

        I never mentioned you, never addressed you….

        …and you reply with this:

        “The fact that it has a new foothold here in the US, as it did during those times as well, only escapes the myopic views of the pseudo-intellectuals. (No need to mention names.)”–Chris

        “Peterson, the name you left unmentioned was obviously Frisch.”–Greg

    • Greg Goodknight says:

      Nothing but innuendo from Interim Principal Rhoden, who even said it wasn’t anything new.

      Some quotes would have been appropriate as Rhoden’s standard for hate speech may well err on the innocuous side… lots of post election snowflakes on school staff.

  6. Greg Goodknight says:

    RL, I really don’t find much to disagree with from Ben Shapiro, but the piece after that one, by Slate’s chief political correspondent, Bouie, paints a different picture:
    “The banner news here is that Trump’s other adviser, campaign strategist Stephen Bannon, will be installed in the White House as chief strategist and senior counselor to the president. According to the campaign press release, Bannon and Priebus will work “as equal partners to transform the federal government.” This means that Trump is serious about the racist and white nationalist rhetoric he deployed in his bid for the Oval Office.”

    The hard left hears racist dogwhistles in their tinnitus squealings much the same as the McCarthyite Right saw communists in every closet in the ’50’s.

    • rl crabb says:

      Yeah, Greg, and some people are just deaf.

      • Greg Goodknight says:

        My hearing is just fine, RL. Democrats were screaming as loudly as possible this time around. Didn’t work. All “those people” weren’t deaf, they were just tuning out the same old BS, preferring some new BS.

        In the past, the GOP has shown a remarkable talent for snatching Defeat from the jaws of Victory and some of that has been probably been due to the press being dominated by partisan Democrats. We shall see how effective mainstream journalism is at forcefeeding the party line to the plebs going forward.

        Bill Clinton badly overestimated the appeal of his policies, including HillaryCare, in ’93 and his reward was Speaker Gingrich in ’94. Trumpers beware, the House can turn over in one election.

  7. Judith Lowry says:

    I hear a lot of fear coming from you gentlemen.
    Before you become completely overwrought, can we just wait and see what really happens?
    Folks are so upset at Trump’s appointments, but they may not all last very long.
    Right now, the POTUS elect appears to be having a good time making his former detractors, like Romney and Haley, eat their words and grovel for a position on his team.
    It’s so “Donald” of him.

  8. Judith Lowry says:

    Okay, I’m ordering duck costumes all around.
    Gentlemen, your sizes please?

    http://holykaw.alltop.com/duck-costume-soothes-anxiety-ridden-rescue-goat

    • Greg Goodknight says:

      I expect, if and when the perp is caught, he will be found to be have been pulling crap like that for years, with Trump just his reason du jour.

      • Chris Peterson says:

        And again, Greg, you just don’t get it. No one’s arguing that there are more racists today then there were a year ago. It’s pretty certain that, if a person is a racist today, they were racist for some time before Trump ran for President. Children aren’t born racist; it’s a learned response that comes from how one is raised. No one is saying that Trump made these idiots have a racial epiphany, and suddenly “turned” overnight.
        And intelligent people can readily admit that everyone, including the media, are suddenly more focused on incidents of a racial nature, due to Trumps campaign rhetoric. But for you to argue that there has been no surge of such behavior because of racist comments by Trump, or his appointment of the alt-right, (white supremacist), Mr. Bannon, is ignorant beyond your usual scope.
        You’d be better of taking Trump’s position that, despite the video tapes to the contrary, he never made racist or misogynistic comments, and that he has never mocked the handicapped, or singled out a billion people of a particular religion for special treatment.
        But your constant arguing just for fucks’ sake is making you look pretty damn stupid.

        • Greg Goodknight says:

          “A surge of behavior”? No Chris, the plural form of “anecdote” is not “data”. What we have a surge of reporting from the usual suspects, often just reports of verbal abuse, one jerk to another. We may later have data, but don’t hold your breath waiting for confirmation of your bias.

          As far as I can tell, no one who has known Bannon for any length of time have characterized him as a bigot, let alone a white supremacist, nor have any journalists who have actually interviewed him… so Chris, how do you know him well enough to make that charge and make it stick?

          The left that is still standing are doing their best to delegitimize the incoming administration. No surprise there.

  9. Judith Lowry says:

    Can someone please help me understand the difference between a hate crime and a greed crime?
    They seem pretty much the same.

    http://people.com/crime/seven-arrested-in-killing-of-georgia-lottery-winner/

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