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German Occupation and Destruction of Social Order

by Oui Wed Jun 27th, 2018 at 09:23:00 AM EST

[Cross-posted from Booman Tribune]

Most likely a futile attempt to oblige, just like the failure by Don Durito to get some blogging ethics back into the Pond. For some years now, the Pond has become more of aan echo chamber with purity in thinking. No one has defined what the party platform of this community should be beyond the founder Martin Longman. Just like selection of species, the community evolves throughout the years, the choice is for the good or the bad. There are many moments in life one makes a choice.

Re: The Deep State and Lisa Pease's Contribution (none / 1)  

Would you care to expand on your suggestion of fascism and naziism in this community?

You have mentioned it a few times, perhaps if its a real problem, we should discuss it seriously.

by bazzz on Wed Jun 27th, 2018 at 08:43:13 AM MEST  

More below the fold ...


What I have witnessed in this community is a horrific abuse of the ratings system. This has been more than once diaried until everyone was fed-up, but nothing changed. By abuse of the ratings system, fellow bloggers act like order troops claiming purity of thinking. This is a fascist phenomena and is not about Nazism. The fascist phenomena can be endured from the left, extreme socialist or communism and to the right and far-right the fascist states as the world witnessed in the 20th century leading up to the Second World War.

I was born a few months after the German capitulation and as a boy I was witness to the effects of vast destruction in The Netherlands. I have written many times about the effects of the German occupation, the minefields and bunkers along the North Sea coastline where I grew up. See info the Atlantik Wall. After living in the States as an immigrant for ten years I chose to return to Europe after finishing my study with a BSEE.

More important, I was witness to many first hand accounts of heroism and collaboration experienced during the German occupation of Holland from 4-10-1940 through 5-5-1945. My dad was under arms after a call for duty and was stationed at the Moerdijk Bridges that should have been part of the defense. Dutch traitors worked for the Nazis before the invasion and they managed to sabotage the explosives as the German forces crossed the border from the East and South. The German Blitzkrieg was overwhelming and the Dutch capitulated within two weeks. The German Luftwaffe had destroyed the city center of Rotterdam, a civilian target. A new method of war to subjugate a people and nation.

From my personal experiences and inherited analytics thinking from my parents, I have always been critical of politics and the role played by might in society. I have always been a Social Democrat and as I grew wiser and older, I have been more firm in my beliefs. In the last decade as I see the world and society change after 9/11, I have become more adament to speak my mind. The role of Xenophobia and Islamophobia has been a major focal point in my writings here @BooMan.

Islamophobia has been supported, facilitated and funded my the Jewish State of Israel. I have written about this theme for at least 10 years now and it has come to fruition in the States with the presidency of Donald Trump as a result. A major force which hastened this process is the occupation of the nine judges in the United States Supreme Court. Yesterday's decision marks for me a watershed moment, a 1933 moment when Hitler got the power in Germany to implement all his ugliness of Mein Kampf.

Sit tied people, it's going to be a rough ride the coming years ...

Staging Friendship: Mussolini and Hitler in Germany in 1937*| Cambridge Press |

In September 1937, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler met in Germany. Millions of ostensibly enthusiastic Germans welcomed the Duce. Here were the world's first two fascist dictators, purportedly united in solidarity, representing the '115 million' Germans and Italians against the Western powers and Bolshevism. Most historians have dismissed the 1937 dictators' encounter as insignificant because no concrete political decisions were made. In contrast, I explore this meeting in terms of the confluence of culture and politics and argue that the meeting was highly significant. Its choreography combined rituals of traditional state visits with a new emphasis on the personality of both leaders and their alleged 'friendship', emblematic of the 'friendship' between the Italian and German peoples. Seen through this lens, the meeting pioneered a new style of face-to-face diplomacy, which challenged the culture of liberal internationalism and represented the aim of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to create a New Order in Europe.

"We Are Evidently Aryans" | Slate - 2017 |

Excerpted from Fascist Modernities: Italy, 1922-1945 by Ruth Ben-Ghiat.

Anti-Semitism had little or no place in Italian fascist doctrine before 1938, reflecting the Italian Jewish community's relatively pacific existence on the peninsula. The tiny size of the country's Jewish population (about 44,000 out of 44 million), the frequency of intermarriage, the physiognomic and cultural similarities that linked Italians of Catholic and Jewish faiths, and the absence of popular anti-Semitic violence had allowed the Jews to enjoy a relatively harmonious existence in Italy throughout the liberal period.

Though the conquest of Ethiopia would produce a slew of official efforts meant to inculcate a "racial consciousness," before and after Hitler's rise to power, Mussolini had publicly rejected credos of biological racism as utopian and ahistorical. In 1933, he authorized a public attack against Nazi racial doctrines.

But we should be cautious in interpreting this as a denunciation of anti-Jewish sentiments. More than any support for Jews, fascist anti-racism of the early '30s reflected the Duce's desire to portray Italian fascism as different from and superior to the ideas being propagated by the parvenu Hitler. During 20 years of rule, Mussolini's attitudes toward the Jews were guided by a similar pragmatism. When he felt that the Jews would help him attain his domestic and foreign policy goals, he was for them; when the Axis alliance led him to perceive the Jews as an obstacle to reaching those goals, he did not hesitate to turn against them.

Just two months after the formation of the Rome-Berlin Axis, in fact, Mussolini published a series of anonymous pronouncements in his newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, that set the tone for the dictatorship's new attitude toward Italian Jews. Dismissing centuries of historical and theological debate, the Duce explained that "anti-Semitism is inevitable wherever there is exaggerated Semitic visibility, interference, and arrogance. The excessive Jew gives rise to the anti-Jew [Il troppo ebreo fa nascere l'antiebreo]." Mussolini's remarks anticipated the different attitudes and aims that separated the Italian and the German racial campaigns. The Italians sought less to eradicate Jews entirely from society than to coerce changes in those Jewish behaviors and customs that had long frustrated Italians and Catholics.

Related articles on topic ...

I Don't Love My Country by soj @BooMan on Dec 27th, 2008

Declaring your nation as "exceptional" is the beginning of authoritarianism by a global power, a first step evolving into fascism.

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Just read some breaking news ... makes my day. :)

Beating an incumbent by a large margin gives me some hope ... especially a woman candidate from a Puerta Rican minority.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Millennial beats veteran Democrat | BBC News |

A millennial candidate has shaken up the US Democratic Party having beaten the incumbent congressman for his seat.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, defeated political veteran Joe Crowley, 56, on Tuesday night in their party's congressional primary in New York City.

Mr Crowley, a 10-term Democrat, had been tipped as a future party leader or even Speaker of the House.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, a former Bernie Sanders volunteer from a Puerto Rican family, won with a 57.5% majority.

Mr Crowley, who had not faced a challenger from his own party in 14 years, had 42.5% in the majority ethnic minority district, which covers parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez will now face Republican candidate Anthony Pappas in the November mid-terms.

Please use this comment as a tip-jar. Thanks.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jun 27th, 2018 at 10:45:03 AM EST
The district is 48.1% Hispanic and 18.4% White, so she's hardly a minority. Makes you wonder how minority representative Crowley was there for so long. Must be affirmative action.

See Greenwald interview her a few weeks ago.

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Jun 27th, 2018 at 02:29:22 PM EST
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Excellent ... thx!

'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jun 27th, 2018 at 04:36:01 PM EST
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And here is Crowley's concession:

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Wed Jun 27th, 2018 at 06:09:25 PM EST
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The DLC/DNC neoliberal tools have been actively suppressing progressive candidates for three decades, so....
by rifek on Sun Jul 1st, 2018 at 12:23:17 PM EST
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Last week "This American Life" (radio program) produced a pretty accurate description of NYC "machine" franchise operations. Political power appears decentralized, or "democratized," to whomsoever is capable of manufacturing capital and labor are barriers to "legitimate" candidacy for office. The role of civic groups --beyond the bounds of the DNC-- is kind of perverse.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Tue Jul 3rd, 2018 at 02:31:24 PM EST
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NYT, 4 days ago
Bernie Sanders Is Winning Converts. But Primary Victories Remain Elusive.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Thu Jun 28th, 2018 at 07:27:02 AM EST
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Anthony Kennedy retiring from Supreme Court

Justice Anthony Kennedy, a crucial swing vote on the Supreme Court, announced Wednesday he's retiring at the end of July, giving President Donald Trump another chance to fundamentally reshape the highest court in the land.

His departure could have massive effects on U.S. policy, particularly on abortion rights and gay rights nationwide. His announcement immediately raised questions about how long the court would stand by its earlier abortion rulings, including Roe v. Wade.

In a statement, the Supreme Court said the 81-year-old Kennedy will step down effective July 31. The judge called it "the greatest honor and privilege to serve our nation in the federal judiciary for 43 years, 30 of those years in the Supreme Court." Kennedy wants to spend more time with his family, even though they were content with him staying on the court.

He also sent a letter to Trump on Wednesday notifying the president of his decision. The court adjourned for the summer earlier in the day.

Trump says search to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy 'will begin immediately'

From a front page story by Martin Longman in 2008 ...

So Many Forces Aligned Against Change

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Wed Jun 27th, 2018 at 08:33:53 PM EST
FINANCE 101.B "wut?", Martin McFly, PhD
When bonds go down, equities go up. The end.

It's sort of wonderful in retrospect how AZ arrived at the conclusions about US political conventions from Charles Hugh Smith's convoluted securities marketing schema ("the con"). The truth is: The premise of deception in all matters rules expectations --even as bond yield went to zero, and equities SURGED.

heh.

Never forget the Fed. Or the lead.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Thu Jun 28th, 2018 at 03:10:50 PM EST
Damn, at 81 Madeleine Albright comes to tell it all in a new book? WTF

Progressive bloggers have stated as such and warned both Democrats and Republicans in the "New American Century". How shameful for a leading Democrat to utter such "wisdom" after having been complicit in causing chaos across the globe in multiple administrations.

Every Democrat who voted for the Iraq War under George Bush ahead of the midterm election 2002 are debit to the Iraq crisis. And it didn't stop there ... torture, rendition, war crimes, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Bucca, Camps in Eastern Europe, Albania .. AFB Bagram in Kabul. Even torture across the Middle East, Libya and into Thailand. The roots of the Islamic State of the Levant (ISIL). Leading to proxy wars.

In the Obama administration under "leadership" of SoS HRC the NATO intervention in Libya and later in Syria to overthrow the authoritarian regimes. Hillary was the poster child for Turkey's Erdogan and Qatar's Al Jazeera. Not the Saudi regime but an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood.  Indeed, Madeleine helped in creating chaos which has been at the roots of Xenophobia and Islamophobia.  No Mrs Albright, I have no interest in buying your new book about Fascism and Dictators. You even spend time and a chapter on our President Donald Trump [NYT]. In de Dutch interview you specifically mentioned: "He is not a fascist."

Please go away Madeleine, just similar to the chaos created by Brzezinski under the Carter administration in the AfPak region. Joined an alliance with Saudi dictatorship of extreme Islam and the Pakistan ISI. Chaos still exists and has worsened over almost four decades. Take that generation of losers, wrecking our institutions and falling astray from International governance, treaties and conventions on the principle of Human Rights. War and killing is not smart foreign policy. The enemy adepts and strikes back by any primitive means available.

Madeleine Albright in new book: Fascism A Warning: This is not about Trump | Dutch Nieuwsuur - June 29, 2018 |

Albright's new book, Fascism: A Warning

This sets up the fundamental analytical structure of the book, in which fascism appears simply as part of a generic "extremism" -- including the Eastern Bloc countries, as well as modern Venezuela -- without any particular characteristics of its own. The threat to liberal fair play comes from resentment and indignation of all kinds.

Indeed, given its focus on the risk of a slide toward fascism in modern America, it's remarkable that the book mentions black Americans only once. This single reference is a hostile mention of the Black Panthers in a list of 1960s movements, alongside Nazis, Communists, the John Birch Society, Yippies, and the Klan.

For Albright, what these groups have in common is that they are "extremists" who attack liberal democracy from the edges. What matters is not the content of what they are fighting for, but merely the fact that they are fighting: weaponized resentment challenges the rule of law and the smooth functioning of democratic debate.

World In Turmoil: Role of Brzezinski and Albright, Our Democrats by Oui @BooMan on Aug. 2, 2014
Confrontational: Carter & Mujahideen; Obama & Neo-nazis by Oui @BooMan on May 9, 2014
More Clinton disinformation: Obama soft on Israel by shergald @BooMan on Feb. 25, 2008

Madeline Albright asked about the Hillary Clinton's response speaking of Trump's "deplorables"... "She should not have used the term."

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jun 29th, 2018 at 09:58:26 PM EST
She's a hag approaching death with the proverbial 11th hour plea for redemption.

That said, I took a moment to search for autobiographies published by either of the Dulles brothers.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

by Cat on Sun Jul 1st, 2018 at 03:38:40 PM EST
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