Garrison Keillor has been floating his own theory on Prarie Home which is
that Trump began running, just for the fun of it. He never thought he'd have
a chance. But now he's stuck with a probable nomination, and he doesn't know
how to get out of it.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 7:05 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: What is fascism?
There is nothing I love better than a good conspiracy theory.
But I happen to know first hand...almost, what is going on within the ranks
of the Elite in their bid to control the Presidency and Congress.
I got this straight from the mouth of the substitute assistant night
watchman at Trump Tower.
So it must be true. Seems the "boys" were sitting around idly counting
their billions and smoking those big, black Cuban cigars and drinking fine
Cuban rum. "Nothing tastes so good as when it's smuggled in", said one of
the Koch brothers.
So, as seemed to always be the case, as they became more and more enveloped
in the cigar smoke and filled with the sweet rum, talk turned to just who
they could put in the White House. "It needs to be someone who knows how to
take orders", said a fellow in the back of the room, wearing a Lone Ranger
Mask with Micro Soft printed across it.
Pretty much they agreed that Jeb Bush was their puppet...ah, Man.
"Trouble is," said Donald Trump, "That Scott Walker will eat our Jeb alive."
That seemed to be a very real stumbling stone right in the middle of their
road to success.
"What if I run", Trump almost whispered, "I can knock old Scott on his old
Rump and then step out, leaving a clear path to the goal line for our buddy,
Jeb."
And that was how it was going to happen. Except that once Scott was out of
the way, Jeb didn't make a clean run to the goal, because there was another
stumbling block in his path. It was Jeb Bush himself And the harder he ran,
the more he wound up tripping over his own big lips. Jeb began getting that
"deer in the headlights" look. "Old Jeb is about as sharp as a bread
board," Donald quacked. "How'd he ever get to be governor of Florida?"
"Hanging chads?" went a quiet whisper around the room. "That's why he knew
it would put George in the White House, because it worked for him in the
gubernatorial election". Then Trump shook his handsome head and groaned,
"Too bad I'm so bright, successful and handsome, or I'd take a run at the
job".
Everyone puffed on their Cuban cigars, sucked up their Cuban Rum and laughed
their heads off.
" Run a billionaire for the job?" "That will never float".
But Trump reminded them that since he was one of them it would be a slam
dunk as far as their ability to control the government went.
"I'll just be so outrageous that the dumb voters will forget that I'm really
in bed with other billionaires". And so he did. But now the rest of the
Billionaires are sobering up and getting a bit nervous.
They mumbled among themselves, worrying about just how reliable Trump would
really be. But they are stuck, because their only options, at present, are
two guys who make Trump look almost sane.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/26/16, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I suppose that the iimplication of that first article is that we don'tchallenging its rule.
have to worry about Trump leading a Fascist revolt. Germany in the
1930's isn't the US in the early twenty first century, however. But my
daughter came up with a theory yesterday, similar to one that I have
had which is evenmore conspiratorial in nature. She said that the plan
is for Hillary to win and Donald is just helping her out by being the
most obnoxious candidate he can be. She said, "They're friends, you
know". Well actually, I'd been thinking that there really was a plot
worked out by the elites to ensure that Hillary would win and that
Trump being the Republican candidate from hell, was part of it.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Roger Loran ;
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2016 10:39 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] What is fascism?
https://socialistaction.org/
What is fascism?
By JEFF MACKLER
Despite the charged rhetoric of Trump and Co., the U.S. ruling class
today has no need or desire to play the fascist card. Absent any
significant working-class opposition to its policies and with a broad
array of consciously constructed and/or controlled pro-Democratic
Party "civil rights, immigrant rights and environmental NGO-type
organizations" behind it, coupled with an ever-declining labor
movement headed by the most hide-bound pro-capitalist and parasitic
union bureaucracy ever, the ruling rich today have little to fear, at
least in the short term, from a mass working-class insurgency capable of
time.
Fascism, historically the most extreme political form of capitalist
rule, is called into being only when the question of which class shall
rule society-either the working class and its allies or the minority
property-owning elite-is sharply posed.
This was the case in Germany, Italy, and Spain in the 1920s and the
1930s, where mass workers' organizations led by Communists and
Socialists, and anarchists in Spain, had the power and mass support to
paralyze capitalist society through massive mobilizations and general
strikes. Indeed, were it not for the Stalinist and reformist
mis-leaders of these and other working-class parties, socialist
revolution would have likely been on the immediate order of the day.
Only at this point did the divided and frightened capitalist classes
employ the fascist option, which began with the physical annihilation
of the leadership of the mass workers' parties and organizations.
Fascism arises only when, in the context of a deep economic crisis,
society experiences a deep class polarization characterized by broad
struggles of radicalizing and class-conscious workers and their
organizations on the one side-potentially capable of seizing power and
ending capitalist rule-and a frightened, divided, and largely impotent
minority capitalist class on the other.
Under these circumstances, armed fascist gangs, usually consisting of
a threatened petty-bourgeois layer (middle class), accompanied by
de-classed and alienated workers (the lumpen proletariat) and a small
portion of misguided working-class elements, begin to take form under
the tutelage of a "strongman" leader, usually trumpeting
"left-sounding"
populist/nationalist language against the powers that be, while
scapegoating the most oppressed layers of society.
Hitler and Mussolini, and Franco in Spain, initially organized and
armed these disaffected elements to direct their anger and
frustrations against the major organizations of the working class as
opposed to the ruling capitalist class. They routinely deployed armed
thugs to break up union meetings and workers' protests.
These fascist-led forces operated outside the formal police and
military institutions of the still "democratic" capitalist state,
although with its increasing implicit approval. But when the
beleaguered capitalist rulers came to realize that the deepening
working-class mobilizations had the potential to challenge their rule,
and at a time when even the ranks of the working-class-based bourgeois
army were considered unreliable instruments to quell workers'
uprisings, they felt compelled to call on or accede to the now
sizeable armed fascist forces to assume at least a share of the state
power.
Adolph Hitler, leader of the Nazi Party, for example, was never
elected as Chancellor of Germany. In January 1933 he was appointed to
this post by Germany's president, Paul Von Hindenburg, ostensibly to
keep Hitler's forces "in check"-that is, to give the Nazi Party a
piece of the state power to be wielded against an insurgent workers'
movement without posing a direct threat to Germany's existing
"democratic" capitalist parliamentary institutions. In short order,
however, Hitler employed his new "legitimacy"
to physically smash, dismember, murder, or imprison the leading ranks
of the mass parties of the working class-especially the Stalinist-led
Communist Party, the largest in the world outside the Soviet Union,
and the reformist Socialist Party.
Tragically, it was the refusal of the Stalinists to join forces with
the Socialists in a workers' united front to challenge Hitler and the
capitalist state power itself that led to one of history's most
terrible working-class defeats, and, indeed, the single most important
event that opened the road to the Second World War, which cost the
lives of 80 million people worldwide.
Photo: Nazi supporters in 1938 cheer Hitler's campaign to unite
Germany and Austria.
Posted in Marxist Politics and Philosophy on April 25, 2016.
May 2016 Chicago $15
Fight for $15 in Chicago
By MARK UGOLINI
- CHICAGO - Low-wage workers and their supporters turned out in force
at over 300 locations in the U.S. and over 40 countries on April 14
demanding a $15 minimum wage and union organizing rights. The prime
target was McDonald's Corporation, referred to as a "poster-child" for
unfair labor practices and poverty wages for low-wage workers worldwide.
(more.)
Posted in Chicago, Labor and tagged 15 Now, Fight for 15, McDonald's,
SEIU on April 19, 2016.
April 2016 France
One million strike in France
By JEFF MACKLER
One million workers and students took to the streets of Paris and
cities across France on March 31 to protest draconian Labor Code
changes proposed by the austerity-minded governing French Socialist
Party of Francois Holland. The changes are set to be considered by the
French parliament in late April; more giant protests are planned at that
(more.)areas:
Posted in Actions & Protest, Europe, International and tagged Britain,
France, NPA on April 17, 2016.
April 2016 Trump, Cruz
The politics of deception
BY JEFF MACKLER
I am tempted to compare the stated political views of the leading
Republican and Democratic Party presidential contenders-even though
they are largely irrelevant. But ranking Donald Trump, Hillary
Clinton, and Bernie Sanders according to their purported degree of
"socialist, progressive, liberal, conservative" or even
incipient-fascist views is of little value in comparison to their
central defense of capitalism-the system of the rule of an elite
minority that owns and controls the vast productive capacities and
wealth of society. It is the system whose inherent evils include war,
repression, racism, poverty, sexism, homophobia, mass incarceration,
environmental destruction, and ever-deepening incursions on civil
liberties and democratic rights. (more.)
Posted in Elections and tagged Bernie Sanders, Clinton, Cruz,
Democrats, Republicans, Trump on April 14, 2016.
April 2016 Miguel
Cuban official tours Bay Area
By NICK BAKER
- SAN FRANCISCO - Miguel Fraga, first secretary of the Cuban Embassy,
which opened last year in Washington, D.C., came to the Bay Area in
March for a week-long tour, speaking to students and community members
about life in Cuba, renewed U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations, and the
need to end the U.S. embargo of Cuba. The Northern California tour was
organized by the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity.
(more.)
Posted in Caribbean, Cuba, International, Latin America, San Francisco
Bay Area and tagged Cuba, Miguel Fraga on April 11, 2016.
April 2016 Labor Notes 3
Labor Notes conference big & diverse
By BILL ONASCH
Though official statistics were not yet available at our deadline,
there were clearly at least a couple of thousand participants at the
April 1-3 Labor Notes Conference in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont.
(more.)
Posted in Chicago, Labor on April 11, 2016.
April 2016 Saudi
Coalition to expose U.S.-Saudi alliance
By MARILYN VOGT-DOWNEY
Over 260 people attended the first 2016 Summit on Saudi Arabia held in
Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6, at the
University of the District of Columbia Law School. The conference was
organized by Code Pink and a new organization, the Coalition to End
the U.S.-Saudi Alliance. (more.)
Posted in Anti-War, International, Middle East and tagged Saudi
Arabia, Yemen on April 7, 2016.
April-2016-Teachers-1-e1459963315347
Day of Action for Chicago teachers
By MARK UGOLINI
- CHICAGO - On April 1, the solidarity of Chicago Teachers, along with
the solidarity of more than 50 union, community, and student
organizations, was on full display before the entire city and state,
and across the country. Nearly 20,000 teachers and supporters flooded
the streets in a late-afternoon rally and march in Chicago's "Loop,"
capping a powerful Day of Action on the theme "Fund Our Futures."
(more.)
Posted in Chicago, Education & Schools, Labor and tagged CTU,
teachers, unions on April 6, 2016.
March 2016 Edu cartoon
Obama's 'Race to the Top' falters
By KEVIN YESSIAN
In 2009, President Obama issued a fact sheet outlining his new
education reform plan. Race to the Top, as it is called, has four key
rigorous standards and assessments, adoption of better data systems
for reporting, support for teachers and school leaders to become more
effective, and a plan for rigorous interventions when a school fails
to meet standards. In the seven years since this announcement, the
results range from somewhat satisfactory to outright disastrous.
(more.)
Posted in Education & Schools on April 4, 2016.
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