The Party of Death
Having recently read David Neiwert’s “The Eliminationists,” I would have naturally been alert to anything from the GOT (Grand Old Teabaggers) that vaguely hinted at, basically, killing everybody they don’t like, but here lately I can’t even keep up with it all. The process has taken on a thudding, accelerating, warp speed, primed during the Clinton years (back then, racism wasn’t cool yet and they still stuck to groups with white people in them…) with their similar demonization and dehumanization of feminazis, tree-huggers, elites, fags, liberals, and what have you. Right-wing radio daily suggested that such vermin ought to be exterminated, or at least the uppity ones, to set an example, thereby making America a better place. Bush ironically provided something of a respite; the proto-teabaggers knew that they were getting what they wanted from their unelected King, and saw the Potemkin diversity of Bush’s cabinet for what it was, a smattering of supple, compliant careerists that Harry Belafonte correctly called “House Negroes.” An audible, eight-year sigh of relief was heard across the Bible Belt, except when Bush tried to do something commie like letting Ay-rabs run our ports or Illegals have a path to citizenship. Dumb as they are, they could see the demographic handwriting on the wall that that sort of thing demonstrated and didn’t like it one bit, but killing them over there, which Bush gladly provided in spades, would have to do while killing them here could wait.
But what a difference a new President makes. They know, instinctively, that if they were in Obama’s place they would immediately set out to “get Whitey” for ample reason, and they project their authoritarian bloodlust onto him. They simply can’t comprehend a world where a victorious political party (which is to them more like a barroom brawler) doesn’t immediately upon seizing power set out to, by any means necessary, exact vengeance against its opponents. Now that Bush had normalized attacks, using everything from spying, jailing, prosecuting, firing, defunding, silencing, etc. all the way up to bombing, torture, and murder, against Muslims here and abroad, peace and environmental groups, Democratic politicians, their own appointees, and even the friggin’ Dixie Chicks, these people now expect a whupping, because they deserve it, according to the trailer park code of justice by which they live.
Today we hear that the Prince of the Teabaggers, Erik by name, who put the “black” in Blackwater, had to off a couple of witnesses who were cooperating with the government in investigations into the wanton illegality we all paid for, and routinely threatened his underlings with violence and death. Because it’s the Christian thing to do. Jeremy Scahill reports in The Nation that he also felt it was his moral duty to help rid the world of Muslims. Scahill didn’t think to ask what he thought about tree-huggers, but he didn’t have to. Thus, we have the Golden Boy of the best Republican blood in the country, such as it is, openly advocating genocide and mass murder, and the federal government is paying him, quite handsomely, to take a shot at it. Given that, it’s pretty to see why the teabaggers and birthers are so unhinged. It’s like Hitler having to go back to housepainting.
Maybe the brave, crusading Obama Justice Department will finally make a single, horrified glance “backward,” and sheepishly bring Prince up on charges of, say, ”witness tampering,” but I doubt it. Killing random people you don’t like, that is if you’re an heir to wealth, a right-wing religious nut, and/or a DOD freeloader, just isn’t really that frowned upon anymore. Prince is all three, and he’s sitting on a lot of taxpayer money to pay for lawyers. The worst thing that could happen to him is getting beat at golf by OJ.
The Nation report on Prince …
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090817/scahill
Related, from Harper’s …
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/05/0082488
Thanks for the link, Dirigo.
Blackwater tells us a lot about ourselves as a nation and as a people. We went to war based on silly propaganda that a child of 16 could see through, we killed innocent civilians on a wholesale basis, and we then used mercenaries to do the “dirty work”.
Can you imagine what they did over there that might be worse than a bunch of marine goons? Jesus on a stick, paying sociopaths to kill innocent children, rape the women, and torture the men is more than I can digest.
So they were rotten from the top right down to the bottom? I would have figured as much. Did America know that we were using paid killers? Well, I do suppose so.
You know Hag, this democracy thing just ain’t working out is it?
No, Heru, especially here lately, but I think it’s the retreat from Democracy that’s the real problem.
Remember when war profiteers used to get prosecuted? Now it’s written off as a cost of doing business. Murder? Such an ugly word; let’s call it “premature demise” and be done with it. Torture? Just a “fraternity prank.” And on and on.
I hope you read the whole story in Dirigo’s link. It’s a stomach turner, the worst part being the personality profile that emerges.
The number of people like that is frighteningly large.
Oh will you please leave golf out of it!
These little white balls can’t take the load you want to put on them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JGHTM5nP7A
Very cute. I’m not sure whether I liked the drunkenness or the golf better.
I would dispute “frighteningly large” terms.
The number of people is frightening, I concur. ‘Large,’ not so much. ‘Outsized’ or ‘disproportionately’ loud or influential, yes, but, damn it, it is NOT a ‘large’ group.
My peeve is that the insipid presumption, yay, reflexive regurgitation saying the group is ‘large’ or a ‘(moral) majority’ — repeating ALL the broadcast voices SAYing it is ‘LARGE’ — only exaggerates in the speaker’s mind an unsustained, and unsustainable standing as a matter of fact in the piteous, puny, and petty-fogging sociopathic felon faction. ‘They’ are vermin. ‘They’ are endangered, and soon extinct (for lack of inductees) if not exterminated by exile as outcasts.
If there were none of the group, zero, the null set, yet broadcast voices continued claiming it existed, promoting its existence, (those microphone maniacs are NOT of the group, they only characterize it for the sake of sensationalism … as Alfred Hitchcock was NOT a ‘bloodsucking slasher’ himself in fact, he only exploited the chills and dollar bills that the concept raises), then most unengaged unventuring people, bowling alone or watching TV, reciting the ‘fashion’ would swear to a surety that ‘those gorgons’ really really really exist. And are comingtoGETCHA!, in your sleep, from under your bed. But … there are none.
‘Frightening’ yes. ‘At-large’ no.
We all know an exception or two, an example as it were, in our personal experience to recall. And we also know each of them, when confronted, shrinks and folds like a dandelion does at sundown. As for the psychopathic Prinze, or OJ, (and like OJ), his destiny is prison, and he’ll go with a whimper.
Again, I so enjoy your writing, Hag, and share agreement line by line. So my rebuff is petty and picky. Just, we have got to get over our terrified traumatic entrainment and purge the fear the media feeds. Purge the media. Stepwise, turn the corner, and doubleback to confront — bring it: and We, the People are the ‘it.’ In your face Newt, Limbaugh, O’Reilly, Murdoch. Now GET OUT. Because WE SAID SO.
I don’t care what is in the ‘health care bill.’ Only I care, and insist to see bold push coming to shove and pass anything Newt Limbaugh objects to.
The moral of my story is meant to be bracing, which I find in a favorite quotation, by Stephen Biko: The strongest weapon in the hands of the oppressor, is the mind of the oppressed.
Don’t concede your mind, Hag. Not any of us.
That’s the point, of course. They’re pursuing a minority strategy, because they know it will work in the media, while the “base” they’re courting is so dumb that it will believe anything. Also, too many Democrats fall for it, too, and we end up with Bush Lite rather than a new direction.
And, as the witched hour now is switched, happy b-day, bro.
Thanks, Meremark.
Happy birthday, Hag.
Thanks, Dirigo.
Happy Birthday, Tart!
I know you don’t ordinarily drink, but maybe have a beer on me, anyway? One or two….
M
One or two it is. Thanks, Heel.
Do whatever Hags do to have a great birthday.
The Repug tactics to drown out all discussion at a town hall where most of the audience came to listen and learn is just another example of OWE (Own Worst Enemy). My son and I discussed this last night and he thinks the tactic and propaganda mantra will work and meaningful reform will not happen. I told him that this will backfire like Palin did and it will cause more split among the Repugs. There are a lot of Independents and Bush disliking voters who will become even more turned off.
On a related note, I recommend finding time to listen to this discussion aired on c-span:
The State of Black America: At a plenary session of the National Urban League’s 2009 annual conference in Chicago panelists discussed the recent meeting between President Obama, Henry Louis Gates, and Cambridge police office James Crowley. They also talked about current race relations in America.
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/includes/templates/library/flash_popup.php?pID=288131-1&clipStart=&clipStop=
Well, I’m willing to give OWE a chance this time, because they’re doing it so openly and clumsily. Remember how they cheered when an interloper who managed to sneak into a Bush town hall got tossed out?
Thanks for the birthday wish, RMP… I spent all morning painting ceilings, but when I got home Plaid Pantry gave me a free sixpack.
I’ll listen to the audio.
Happy Birthday, Hag. Based on careful reading of your blog for the past months, I suspect you and I are close in age.
I agree with Meremark in that the percentage of sociopaths in our population is small – but I think it could be as much as 25% – not all that 25% are thugs, but they are cold-blooded nutcases. It’s not a coincidence that 28% of a recent poll believe Obama was born in Kenya, and Bush left office with around 27% approval rating.
There’s your percentage of sociopaths, IMO.
That’s about the percentage Nixon calculated during the depths of Watergate; people so kooky that they loved him MORE; before that they thought he was practically a commie. I believe that Bob Altemeyer came up with the same % of RWA’s in his work as well.
Thanks for the birthday wish. I’m 45.
Forty-five? You’ve come to hagdom ( or wisdom, to give it its more generic name) sinfully early in the arc of life, I have to say. Mind you, I don’t think that there’s such a thing as a premature wisdom. I’ve met wise twelve year olds, and have always marveled that wisdom can be so divorced from experience. It’s rare, but it occurs often enough to make me think that the observer who resides behind the developing ego in that complexity we call mind is far more ancient than the vessel it inhabits.
Uncanny it may be, I’ve seen it over and over again. (In America we think of children as being fragile as eggs, yet observers of children under extreme duress — in Auschwitz, say, or Iraq — invariably testify to their remarkable resilience.) The kid in The Painted Bird grows up to be Jerzy Kosinski, and we’re all amazed. Perhaps we shouldn’t be. Heru’s been studying Asian religions; I wonder what he would make of my observation.
And yes, lest I forget…the original point of this comment was to wish you a happy birthday. Do something elegant for yourself, will you, Hagele? If furs don’t work in this execrable summer of damp and fire, perhaps a drift of chiffon will do the trick.
I’ve always been a hag; it’s only lately I’ve started to look like one, particularly in the morning. As a toddler, our housekeeper, Irene, called me “lil’ ol’ man,” because of my deep voice and startling vocabulary. (the later succession of drunks, harridans, and hippies who filled that role post-divorce called me other things….)
Well the weather has dropped below 80, and having repaired to my balcony to enjoy writer’s block on the rocks, I did feel a slight chill, and had to pull out a summer fur, an Arctic fox named Blanche. (maybe Sarah Palin shot her from a helicopter back when she was college-shopping…)
William,
I would say that there is a lot of truth in your observations on wisdom, mind, and ego. The latest scientific research has some scientists claiming now that they don’t really know were the brain stops and the body starts. Weird, eh? Then at UT I just posted this link.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4357829/Immortal-jellyfish-swarming-across-the-world.html
It is about jellyfish that can reverse the aging process! Double weird, eh?
And it would now be wise to wish Hag (Tony) a very happy birthday. (my he is just a kid!)
Thanks for this, Hag. It’s a great birthday gift from you to us. Enjoy your day.
You’re welcome, Jim, and I will.
Aahhhh… to be 45 again. Hag, you are in what many call the prime of life. Still… if it will give you hope, I’m actually enjoying the 50s much more than my 40s. I feel less restricted. ;~)
I hope you had a great day today! …and that you found a hag-like way to celebrate!
Just got in, wanted to make sure I wished you a very happy birthday. I truly Hope the coming year is your best yet.
Thanks, Jim, but this year being the best yet seems a bit unlikely. I’ve had some pretty great years, after all, which seem unlikely to be repeated, much less exceeded, at this point… ; ) I think I lack the stamina for it.
The rest is the best.
More on Jeremy Scahill’s work …
http://antiwar.com/radio/2009/08/01/jeremy-scahill-3/