Mail bombs sent to CNN / Dems

[Cabinet]

I'm under the impression that Nazi groups in the US were allowed to organize because of our red scares over the past few decades.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I'm under the impression that Nazi groups in the US were allowed to organize because of our red scares over the past few decades.

Nah, America has just never really liked black, brown and non-Christian folks all that much.

Many of the hate groups to use WWII Nazi imagery have ties to good old American racism like the KKK.

We also have some of the most laxed freedom of speech and expression laws, which I think is a net positive, but this is a side effect.

 

[USMarine75]

I'm under the impression that Nazi groups in the US were allowed to organize because of our red scares over the past few decades.

Politically in the 30's, the US was by default pro-Nazi since the Nazis were the enemy of the Communists (and Anarchists). The German American Bund was the US Nazi party, run by a German-American Nazi named Kuhn.

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/542499/marshall-curry-nazi-rally-madison-square-garden-1939/
^ archival video

https://www.politico.com/magazine/s...rican-bund-rally-madison-square-garden-215522
^story

There are still many active pro-Nazi groups in the US today, like the ANP (founded in 1959).

https://www.splcenter.org/
^ SPLC is an organization that tracks active extremist and hate groups in the US.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/hitlers-willing-business-partners/303146/
^Many US companies still did business with the Nazi regime, even after it was forbidden by the Trading with the Enemy Act. Brown Brothers Harriman (one of the largest investment banks of its day, and UBC a subsidiary) was a bank with ties to Prescott Bush, the CT Senator, and George Bush's father and G W Bush's grandfather. He was also married to the daughter of George Herbert Walker, who connected him with the right people and with the Nazi party for banking purposes.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/henryford-antisemitism/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm?noredirect=on
^ Ford and GM were also linked to the Nazi party.

 

[Randy]

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/henryford-antisemitism/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm?noredirect=on
^ Ford and GM were also linked to the Nazi party.

 

[USMarine75]

I was literally thinking about this when I was posting haha.

 

[USMarine75]

Anecdotal but the first person to walk into my office today said "Did you hear they arrested the bomber? I heard he's registered Green Party'?"

Swoosh!

Appropriate Halloween humor for some people on here...

 

[Cabinet]

Nah, America has just never really liked black, brown and non-Christian folks all that much.

Many of the hate groups to use WWII Nazi imagery have ties to good old American racism like the KKK.

We also have some of the most laxed freedom of speech and expression laws, which I think is a net positive, but this is a side effect.

I agree, to an extent; however, I think the media has played a large responsibility in the polarity between political parties and our politicians tend to do the same. I remember watching a political debate recorded a few decades ago (Maybe it was during Reagan's campaign?) and the approach to complicated issues highlighted unity of the American people which is not something I see a lot of today. Though we aren't completely under the control of televisions and reporters, it has an effect especially given that less educated people, and people that financially struggle, tend to care less about political ideology.
Look at India in the 1950s, with what was arguably a stable Democracy at the time and part of the reason was that half the country was illiterate. Political unrest in India today is partly fueled by the rising importance and accessibility of higher education (a good thing, in my opinion).

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I agree, to an extent; however, I think the media has played a large responsibility in the polarity between political parties and our politicians tend to do the same. I remember watching a political debate recorded a few decades ago (Maybe it was during Reagan's campaign?) and the approach to complicated issues highlighted unity of the American people which is not something I see a lot of today. Though we aren't completely under the control of televisions and reporters, it has an effect especially given that less educated people, and people that financially struggle, tend to care less about political ideology.
Look at India in the 1950s, with what was arguably a stable Democracy at the time and part of the reason was that half the country was illiterate. Political unrest in India today is partly fueled by the rising importance and accessibility of higher education (a good thing, in my opinion).

I'll never fault the media for being right. (Whoops, typed that differently and left "wrong" instead of "right".)

But, while the media is bright, shiny and in broad daylight, the real cause for such divide is the darker part of politics that is very rarely thought of by your average citizens: lobbying and gray (and black) money from the super rich, large corporations, religious special interest groups, and foreign countries.

Senator Chuck D. Republican doesn't care about abortion or healtcare he cares about the big check in the mail. Of course you have your Steve Kings, who are actual monsters and your Bernie Sanders that are true believers, but I'd reckon most politicians are in it for self enrichment, and they're willing to do anything to get it, even if it means tearing the country apart and actually killing people.

 

[Cabinet]

I'll never fault the media for being wrong.

But, while the media is bright, shiny and in broad daylight, the real cause for such divide is the darker part of politics that is very rarely thought of by your average citizens: lobbying and gray (and black) money from the super rich, large corporations, religious special interest groups, and foreign countries.

Senator Chuck D. Republican doesn't care about abortion or healtcare he cares about the big check in the mail. Of course you have your Steve Kings, who are actual monsters and your Bernie Sanders that are true believers, but I'd reckon most politicians are in it for self enrichment, and they're willing to do anything to get it, even if it means tearing the country apart and actually killing people.

Completely agree. Especially in foreign policy, US interests have never been rooted in morality, but we try to see it as such. This is why we never see reports of the military build up in east Asia. There is no philosophical enemy. No fascist dictator to overthrow. No unstoppable Communist force. Just business.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Completely agree. Especially in foreign policy, US interests have never been rooted in morality, but we try to see it as such. This is why we never see reports of the military build up in east Asia. There is no philosophical enemy. No fascist dictator to overthrow. No unstoppable Communist force. Just business.

Money, revenge and a burning hatred of brown people. In that order.

It's the American way.

 

[Cabinet]

Money, revenge and a burning hatred of brown people. In that order.

It's the American way.

Eh. Vietnam has been quietly requesting US naval presence in the area, and Singapore has built harbors specific to American warship dimensions. China doesn't want us there, but most of the smaller nations there do.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Eh. Vietnam has been quietly requesting US naval presence in the area, and Singapore has built harbors specific to American warship dimensions. China doesn't want us there, but most of the smaller nations there do.

America: The Lesser of Two Evils

 

[USMarine75]

Senator Chuck D. Republican doesn't care about abortion or healtcare he cares about the big check in the mail.

The senator has no comment at this time regarding these allegations.

 

[AngstRiddenDreams]

I'll never fault the media for being right. (Whoops, typed that differently and left "wrong" instead of "right".)

But, while the media is bright, shiny and in broad daylight, the real cause for such divide is the darker part of politics that is very rarely thought of by your average citizens: lobbying and gray (and black) money from the super rich, large corporations, religious special interest groups, and foreign countries.

Senator Chuck D. Republican doesn't care about abortion or healtcare he cares about the big check in the mail. Of course you have your Steve Kings, who are actual monsters and your Bernie Sanders that are true believers, but I'd reckon most politicians are in it for self enrichment, and they're willing to do anything to get it, even if it means tearing the country apart and actually killing people.

*cough* guillotine *cough*

 

[KnightBrolaire]

*cough* guillotine *cough*

fun fact: france used the guillotine as a form of execution up until the late 1970s.

 

[USMarine75]

fun fact: france used the guillotine as a form of execution up until the late 1970s.

fun fact: manatees use farts as ballast to control their swimming.

 

[AngstRiddenDreams]

fun fact: manatees use farts as ballast to control their swimming.

That actually is a fun fact.

 

[Jacksonluvr636]

Particularly relevant here... an excerpt from "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by Loewen:

At home, [President Woodrow] Wilson's racial policies disgraced the office he held. His Republican predecessors had routinely appointed blacks to important offices, including those of port collector for New Orleans and the District of Columbia and register of the treasury. Presidents sometimes appointed African Americans as postmasters, particularly in southern towns with large black populations. African Americans took part in the Republican Party's national conventions and enjoyed some access to the White House. Woodrow Wilson, for whom many African Americans voted in 1912, changed all that. A southerner, Wilson had been president of Princeton, the only major northern university that refused to admit blacks. He was an outspoken white supremacist—his wife was even worse—and told "darky" stories in cabinet meetings. His administration submitted a legislative program intended to curtail the civil rights of African Americans, but Congress would not pass it. Unfazed, Wilson used his power as chief executive to segregate the federal government. He appointed southern whites to offices traditionally reserved for blacks. Wilson personally vetoed a clause on racial equality in the Covenant of the League of Nations. The one occasion on which Wilson met with African American leaders in the White House ended in a fiasco as the president virtually threw the visitors out of his office. Wilson's legacy was extensive: he effectively closed the Democratic Party to African Americans for another two decades, and parts of the federal government remained segregated into the 1950s and beyond." In 1916 the Colored Advisory Committee of the Republican National Committee issued a statement on Wilson that, though partisan, was accurate: "No sooner had the Democratic Administration come into power than Mr. Wilson and his advisors entered upon a policy to eliminate all colored citizens from representation in the Federal Government."

Omitting or absolving [President Woodrow] Wilson's racism goes beyond concealing a character blemish. It is overtly racist. No black person could ever consider Woodrow Wilson a hero. Textbooks that present him as a hero are written from a white perspective. The coverup denies all students the chance to learn something important about the interrelationship between the leader and the led. White Americans engaged in a new burst of racial violence during and immediately after Wilson's presidency. The tone set by the administration was one cause. Another was the release of America's first epic motion picture.21 The filmmaker David W. Griffith quoted Wilson's two-volume history of the United States, now notorious for its racist view of Reconstruction, in his infamous masterpiece The Clansman, a paean to the Ku Klux Klan for its role in putting down "black-dominated" Republican state governments during Reconstruction. Griffith based the movie on a book by Wilson's former classmate, Thomas Dixon, whose obsession with race was "unrivaled until Mein Kampf." At a private White House showing, Wilson saw the movie, now retitled Birth of a Nation, and returned Griffith's compliment: "It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so true." Griffith would go on to use this quotation in successfully defending his film against NAACP charges that it was racially inflammatory.22 This landmark of American cinema was not only the best technical production of its time but also probably the most racist major movie of all time. Dixon intended "to revolutionize northern sentiment by a presentation of history that would transform every man in my audience into a good Democrat! . . . And make no mistake about it—we are doing just that."2 ' Dixon did not overstate by much. Spurred by Birth of a Nation, William Simmons of Georgia reestablished the Ku Klux Klan. The racism seeping down from the White House encouraged this Klan, distinguishing it from its Reconstruction predecessor, which President Grant had succeeded in virtually eliminating in one state (South Carolina) and discouraging nationally for a time. The new KKK quickly became a national phenomenon. It grew to dominate the Democratic Party in many southern states, as well as in Indiana, Oklahoma, and Oregon. During Wilson's second term, a wave of antiblack race riots swept the country. Whites lynched blacks as far north as Duluth.24 If Americans had learned from the Wilson era the connection between racist presidential leadership and like-minded public response, they might not have put up with a reprise on a far smaller scale during the Reagan-Bush years." To accomplish such education, however, textbooks would have to make plain the relationship between cause and effect, between hero and followers. Instead, they reflexively ascribe noble intentions to the hero and invoke "the people" to excuse questionable actions and policies. According to Triumph of the American Nation: "As President, Wilson seemed to agree with most white Americans that segregation was in the best interests of black as well as white Americans." Wilson was not only antiblack; he was also far and away our most nativist president, repeatedly questioning the loyalty of those he called "hyphenated Americans," "Any man who carries a hyphen about with him," said Wilson, "carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready."26 The American people responded to Wilson's lead with a wave of repression of white ethnic groups; again, most textbooks blame the people, not Wilson. The American Tradition admits that "President Wilson set up" the Creel Committee on Public Information, which saturated the United States with propaganda linking Germans to barbarism. But Tradition hastens to shield Wilson from the ensuing domestic fallout: "Although President Wilson had been careful in his war message to state that most Americans of German descent were 'true and loyal citizens,' the anti-German propaganda often caused them suffering." Wilson displayed little regard for the rights of anyone whose opinions differed from his own.

tl;dr The connection between leaders and the led - the people often take their social and moral cues from their leaders (be it politicians, or today from social media "stars"). Or more apropos, a cycle between popularism, leaders, and the led. LGBTQ rights become a majority held view, leaders like Biden and then Obama become "enlightened", and then this becomes a socially acceptable norm for many. Trump is a nationalist, xenophobe, and what many consider to be a racist -> white nationalists come out from the dark.

Agree overall, people are sheep. I just think they are idiots to blindly follow.

Between the Federal Reserve Act and this info above is another reason why I think Wilson is officially the worst President the US has ever seen.

 

[Drew]

Between the Federal Reserve Act...

Oh, jeez. No. Just, no. You don't know enough about monetary policy to hold that opinion, or you wouldn't hold that opinion, and I REALLY don't want to get into this argument again with someone else who doesn't know what they're talking about.

 

[Jacksonluvr636]

Oh, jeez. No. Just, no. You don't know enough about monetary policy to hold that opinion, or you wouldn't hold that opinion, and I REALLY don't want to get into this argument again with someone else who doesn't know what they're talking about.

This guy. Mr know it all? I have read every section so what more could you possibly know? You are kind of putting yourself into an argument by your post but don't want to get into one? Your logic makes a lot of sense. I can't imagine all of the amazing things you would have to say.